


Grounded Earth

by GrayRainbow173



Series: Braving the Elements [8]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cliffhangers, Complete, F/F, Original planet, Romance, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 48,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27956405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrayRainbow173/pseuds/GrayRainbow173
Summary: COMPLETE: While surveying a bountiful planet, Kathryn battles with her own insecurities as her relationship with Seven becomes public.
Relationships: Kathryn Janeway/Seven of Nine
Series: Braving the Elements [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1894309
Comments: 212
Kudos: 78





	1. Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your patience and welcome to the 8th (!) part of my series 'Braving the Elements'.  
> I hope you'll enjoy!

The light filtering through the leaves of the plants and trees caused shadows to play across the forest floor in a thousand different shades of green. Kathryn turned around in a circle, trying to take it all in. She knew that Neelix and Tuvok were close-by. They wanted to stay within earshot of each other in case something went wrong. But because of the density of the vegetation it almost looked like she was alone in the jungle of this amazing planet. 

Voyager had encountered a M-class planet with such a variety of plant life and minerals that they had decided to stop and launch an extensive investigation. Multiple teams, mostly from the Science Departments, were sent down to examine the different plants and Engineers were excavating several large deposits of minerals and metals that might prove useful for their engines.

Every time they came across an uninhabited planet like this, the Captain needed to make a decision. To stay and see what bounty was there to take, not just in material gains but in knowledge as well, or to leave immediately and continue their course towards Earth. 

Sometimes the choice was hard either way. They were still so far away from the Alpha Quadrant that a small delay seemed inconsequential. But at other times, the collective need to get back home was so strong that they flew past several learning opportunities. 

But this planet, which seemed to be unclaimed and unexplored by any of the alien species living nearby, was too good to pass by. Their food and other supplies would be replenished and the knowledge they gained here would be sent back to the Alpha Quadrant so that Starfleet could expand on their research as well. 

Kathryn also had to admit that it was nice to stand on solid ground again, looking around at real living things without secretly knowing that they were made up of photons on the Holodeck. 

She took in a deep cleansing breath right before her eyes landed on a particular pretty flower causing her to miss Seven again. 

Her girlfriend was constantly on her mind these days and it was almost becoming embarrassing. During staff meetings or while she was on duty on the Bridge, her mind would wander and a smile would break through on her face making the rest of her crew snicker and smile knowingly. 

It was very hard to care about all of that though, while she could hold Seven in her arms at night when she spent them in the Captain’s quarters. To watch her breathe, move, sleep… It was all quite normal stuff but with Seven it was suddenly all new and exciting. 

Their relationship was now officially public. Not that it had made any big difference. None of the crew had made any comments about it, not after Tom had suggested the double date at the Thanksgiving party. Some of them sometimes gave her a knowing smile but nothing more.

The one person who had seemed to have the most difficulty with the change was Seven. She was still getting used to the fact that she could now call Kathryn by her first name when they were around other people and she often still called her by her rank just to be safe. 

Even so, it was nice to be able to hold hands when they were walking through the corridors or when they were eating in the Mess Hall. 

Right now, the beauty of the flower reminded her of her girlfriend and she wished she was there with her so she could share the discovery. 

Kathryn’s hand shot out to touch the flower but she quickly pulled it back again. Instead she scanned it with her tricorder and logged the information in the database. They didn’t know any of these plants. Even Neelix hadn’t seen them before as this planet was completely unique and untouched. So they could never know whether the flowers were poisonous or safe to touch.

So far there hadn’t been any accidents, except for one twisted ankle and some scratches. The planet and the flora all looked safe and inviting so crewmembers were actually lining up to go down to the surface. Maybe she should give them all some shore leave just to soak in the beneficial effects of real nature…

“Captain.” Tuvok’s soft voice made her jump. She hadn’t heard his footsteps on the soft forest floor.

“Tuvok.” Kathryn smiled at her friend. “Isn’t it amazing?”

Tuvok looked around as if he was looking for what she was talking about. “It is very pleasing.”

Chuckling Kathryn knew that he probably just said that to please her but she was grateful anyway. “How is Neelix’s exploration going?”

“He seems to think that every plant we come across has some sort of application in cooking. It is going very slowly so far.” Tuvok said with a slight hint of irritation.

“Well, we are not in a hurry.” Kathryn replied as she sat down on her hunches to study the flower more closely.

“Indeed. Though I would like to remind you that the new data stream from Earth is supposed to come in in less than one hour.” He said.

Kathryn straightened back up. She had forgotten about the new data stream and that surprised her. 

The ability to exchange messages with the people back home had become so important to the crew and to her personally. But this time she hadn’t looked forward to it as much as she had before. Still she was happy now, knowing that she would probably receive a new letter from her mother soon. 

“Perhaps we really should pack it up then.” She said. “I know Neelix likes to be on board distributing the letters as our Morale Officer.”

Tuvok simply nodded at her before they made their way through the plants to where Neelix... was lying on the ground.

For a moment Kathryn thought that something had gone wrong. That Neelix had eaten a poisonous plant or had tripped over a tree root and had hit his head. 

But as they got closer, she saw the Talaxian move a leaf right under his nose, take in a deep breath and then release it with a content sigh. 

Tuvok cleared his throat and Neelix opened his eyes. “Hello there! Captain, isn’t this an amazing planet? All the greens, all the smells! I can’t wait to try out these new plants for our dinner tonight.”

“We will still have to wait for all of the analyses to come back _before_ you can cook them, Mr. Neelix.” Tuvok reminded him.

“I know that Mr. Vulcan.” Neelix said as he scrambled to his feet. “I was just excited.”

“It _is_ an amazing place.” Kathryn quickly agreed. “But we do have to be careful with the unknown.”

Smiling at both of them Kathryn waited while Neelix packed up the last of their things and then she contacted Voyager to beam them back aboard. The Transporter room looked even more cold and… metallic after being on the planet but a part of Kathryn knew that she was closer to Seven now and that made everything better.

“I will get ready to distribute the mail when it comes in.” Neelix said happily as he jumped off the transporter pad. “I am sure I will see both of you on my delivery round.” 

Tuvok offered to bring the supplies she had gathered to the labs that were analyzing everything from the surface. Kathryn quickly thanked him and then realized she was free to go wherever she pleased. 

Her feet almost took her back to the Bridge out of habit but her duty shift was almost over and Seven had asked her to have dinner in her quarters tonight because she wanted to be able to ask her all kinds of questions about the planet without any interruptions. 

Therefore the Captain set out towards Deck 1. She wanted to take a shower and change out of her uniform before dinner. She suddenly realized that all of this felt so homey, almost bourgeois and… she liked it. 

  


She had just finished her sonic shower and changed into some comfortable clothes when her door chimed. 

“Hello Captain.” Neelix said. “Here are your letters.”

“Thank you.” She said as she accepted the padd on which he had downloaded all of her new correspondence. 

“Is Seven here?” Neelix asked, holding another padd.

“No, she isn’t. But she will be here shortly so you can leave her mail here with me if you like.” Kathryn said.

“Very well. Have a nice evening together.” Neelix said with a twinkle in his eyes and then left.

Kathryn put Seven’s pad on the dining table. She wanted to see if her girlfriend had gotten another letter from her mother but she didn’t. Respecting each other’s privacy was important after all and Seven would probably tell her about her mail anyway. Besides, Kathryn was too curious to see what her mother had written to her.

She quickly replicated a hot cup of black coffee and then sat down on her couch before opening the index on the padd. There was quite a long list of letters this time and Kathryn frowned as her eyes quickly scanned the list of senders. Some of them were from Starfleet and the Captain inside of her wanted to open those messages first. Others seemed to be from people she didn't know which really peaked her curiosity. But the need to read her mother’s letter was too strong so she quickly opened that one first. 

Smiling, she felt the warmth of her mother’s words wash over her. She wrote about life on Earth and specifically life on the family farm. Maybe it was because she had been surrounded by plants only a short while ago but somehow she could almost smell the things her mother was describing to her. 

However, when she reached the end of the letter, the tone changed. 

_”Kathryn, the news of your relationship with Seven has spread across the globe. You know that you and Voyager have been a very popular pastime for a lot of people here, really ever since we found out that you were still out there._

_Some people even came up to the house to ask me questions about you! And after the news of your relationship spread, that happened more often. You are somewhat of a celebrity and now you’re in a romantic relationship, making your life even more fascinating to some people._

_Don’t get me wrong, I am so happy for you and most other people are too. But there are others who want to pry. They want to know all they can about your Seven and there have been quite a few articles about you two._

_I am sending some of them with this letter just so you can read them yourself. Please, do not let them get to you. You know as well as I do how gossip works and being a Starfleet Captain means that you live in the spotlight._

_Still, I thought it would be best if you could read them as soon as possible and before your crewmembers might. It seems that it were some of their family members who have been talking to the press about you. I can’t be sure of some of them but I know for a fact that the mother of your Ensign Harry Kim has been talking to the press. She hasn’t been exactly shy about it..._

_Know that Phoebe and I would never do anything to hurt your privacy or Seven’s. We love you and we just want you to be happy. Phoebe will probably send you a letter as well. Reply to us whenever you can and take good care of each other!”_

Somehow the hand that was holding the padd had become sweaty and Kathryn noticed how nerves were suddenly fluttering in her stomach.

Her mother was right of course. Gossip was a unavoidable part of being a Starfleet Captain and to captain the ship that was stranded in the Delta Quadrant… well that had had it’s consequences. Her reputation had almost become legendary on Earth but now the gossip centered around her personal life, her relationship with Seven…

She quickly opened the list of attachments that her mother had included with her letter. There were five articles and Kathryn did not know where to begin so she just scanned their titles. 

_"Captain of Voyager takes on Borg lover."_

_"Annika Hansen (28), former Borg drone, swept of her feet by Starfleet Captain."_

_"Captain Janeway finds love in the Delta Quadrant."_

_"Kathryn Janeway (43) is dating a Borg drone (28)."_

_"Seven of Nine assimilated by 43 year old Captain."_

Feeling suddenly nauseous, she wanted to look away. To not read any of them but she knew her mother was right in sending them to her. Her crew would read them… Their families might have written about these articles in the letters that were now being delivered throughout the ship. She had to know so she would be prepared.

With a hammering heart, Kathryn started to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First: I know that Kathryn's age has always been a bit of a mystery. She has no canon date of birth but for this story it was important for me to pick a number. I have already had one discussion about this in the comments of 'Intermezzo Inferno' but if you want, you can give me your views in the comments here as well.  
> Second: My life has improved drastically since I began writing this series. Which means that I might have less time to write and more importantly I have loosened up a bit. So I won't try as hard to make every chapter about the same length. I think that was why I was struggling to begin this story and I have let it go now. I hope you won't mind that some chapters might be a bit shorter than you're used to or that some might be longer than others. Can't really predict anything at this point but I still want to post chapters as often as I can without hurting the quality of the story.  
> Third: I would love to know what you think of this first chapter so, if you have the time, let me know what you think by leaving a comment!
> 
> Thank you.


	2. Planet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this story and a special thank you to those of you who leave such encouraging comments. Enjoy this second chapter!

“Oh good you’re back.” Seven said as she walked through the door into the Captain’s quarters and spotted Kathryn sitting on her couch.

Kathryn had ordered the Computer to give Seven unrestricted access to her quarters after Thanksgiving. Something Seven had found quite touching for reasons she did not quite understand. But it was nice, being able to just walk in without having to wait for Kathryn to open the door. And it had proven quite invaluable for surprising Kathryn…

“I ran into Neelix on my way over here and he told me you had returned from the surface and that he had delivered…” Seven stopped in her tracks as she took in her girlfriend’s body language and the fact that she hadn’t looked up yet.

“What’s wrong?” Seven asked as she increased her pace to quickly walk over to the couch. She sat down next to Kathryn but refrained from touching her just yet. “Is it your mother? Did something happen?”

“No.” Kathryn answered. Her voice was small, shaky and Seven did not like it. 

Trepidation spread throughout her body causing her senses to become more alert, desperately trying to find the cause of Kathryn’s strange behavior. Her eyes took in the blush that had spread over Kathryn’s cheeks and then they landed on her gray eyes which had a slightly panicked look in them mixed with some moisture that wasn’t quite enough to be tears yet. Simultaneously, Seven’s ears picked up Kathryn’s elevated heartbeat and stuttering breathing. It all caused her own anxiety to rise.

“Kathryn, please tell me what is wrong?” Seven asked as she really needed some answers quick. She took one of the Captain’s hands in her own and squeezed it gently.

“It’s nothing really.” Kathryn finally looked up and the look in her eyes slowly changed. Becoming calmer. “I don’t know… I guess I am being silly.”

Abruptly, she pulled her hand back and got up from the couch. She walked over to the replicator but instead of getting a cup of coffee, she asked for a glass of water. Seven did not like that either.

“What are you being silly about?” She asked, glancing down at the padd in Kathryn’s hand but the screen was black.

“My mother wrote to me.” Kathryn finally started to explain after heaving a big sigh. “She told me that there are some people on Earth who are… very interested in our relationship.”

Seven simply blinked at her. She needed more information to understand why this would cause Kathryn to respond this way. She had almost expected her to tell her that something was wrong with her mother or sister or that she had been fired or demoted by Starfleet. The fact that people were interested in their relationship seemed very trivial and not worthy of such an emotional response.

“I don’t understand.” Seven pressed on when Kathryn did not immediately continue.

Without saying anything else, Kathryn handed her the padd. Seven kept her eyes focused on her face at first but Kathryn quickly turned away and started pacing the floor. So Seven turned on the screen of the padd and found a list of titles that were apparently attachments to a letter Gretchen had sent her daughter. 

Seven read the titles and then looked back at Kathryn, unsure whether she wanted her to actually read the articles. But Kathryn was staring back at her, biting her bottom lip nervously. 

“Do you want me to read these?” Seven asked.

“No! I mean yes, you can if you want to.” Kathryn ran her hands through her hair. “I haden’t finished reading them all before you came in but I got the general notion of them… Maybe you should read them too so you’ll be prepared…”

“Prepared for what?” Seven tried to stay patient but she was very confused by now.

“For what the others might say!” Kathryn said. “You did read the titles right?”

“Yes, but they don’t offer much information. Besides I don’t see why it matters what these people back on Earth have to say about us.” Seven said. 

She was starting to get frustrated. Kathryn wasn’t explaining things the way she wanted her to and apparently assumed that Seven understood why she was so upset. Maybe it was one of the human intricacies that she still had to master…

“It _doesn’t_ matter what they think…” Kathryn mumbled after a while. “I don’t understand why I am… this upset myself.”

Seven put down the padd. If these articles had hurt her girlfriend she wanted nothing to do with them. 

She got up from the couch and slowly walked over to where Kathryn had stopped her pacing. A little afraid that she might back away, Seven hesitated. But considering that words were not helping right now, she decided to push on because maybe physical comfort would help. 

Gingerly, she wrapped her arms around Kathryn and was relieved when she felt Kathryn hug her back. As her mind was still trying to catch up to whatever human interaction was going on right now, her hands slowly moved up and down Kathryn’s back. The motion and the contact calming them both.

After a while, Kathryn pulled back and looked up at her with a smile. But there were real tears in her eyes now. “I’m sorry.”

Seven did not know what to say. She wanted to tell her that it was alright, that she wasn’t angry about Kathryn’s reaction but she did not know what was expected of her. Maybe she should just change the subject and start asking her questions about the planet 's surface...

Before she could sort through her thoughts though, the door chimed. 

The sound of the chime made Kathryn jump a bit and on instinct she quickly wiped her eyes and moved further back from Seven. 

Before she opened the door she glanced back at her girlfriend who still looked a little lost. This caused guilt to crash through her but she couldn’t focus on that right now. She quickly straightened her uniform and then pressed the button next to the door.

A very upset and uncomfortable looking Harry Kim was standing in front of her.

“Ensign?” Kathryn said surprised. “Can I help you?”

“Captain… I am sorry to just come over to your quarters like this…” He stuttered. “I just needed to tell you… my mother…”

Kathryn smiled, realizing why the young Ensign was at her door. “Why don’t you come in, Harry.”

He followed her in but stayed close to the closed door. “Hello, Seven.”

“Ensign.” Seven greeted him. Kathryn noticed how she had quickly hidden all the emotions that Kathryn had seen on her face only moments before. Her face was now an unreadable mask as she stood at attention. “Would you like to have a moment alone with the Captain?”

“Oh no, please stay.” Harry said as he rubbed his neck with one hand. “This concerns you too I’m afraid.”

“I have to tell you Harry, that my mother has already written to me about yours.” Kathryn told him, still smiling encouraging at him. “She said that your mother has been talking to the press about Voyager and… about Seven and me.”

Harry’s face turned a very impressive color of red and Kathryn felt sorry for the young man. She wanted to ease his discomfort but before she could say anything else, he started to ramble.

“I am so sorry Captain! I had no idea that she would do this. I don’t even understand why she did what she did! But I guess it is my fault. I should never have told her about your… relationship. I did not think it through and I never imagined it would lead to this! But I will tell her… I will tell her that she has to stop talking to the press! Or else… or else I won’t write to her anymore!” He squared his shoulders as if he had announced that he was going into battle. 

Kathryn quickly glanced at Seven. The look of pure confusion was back on her face as she looked back at Kathryn with questioning eyes. Kathryn quickly shook her head to indicate that everything was fine. 

“Ensign.” She said in her most calming Captain’s voice. “I don’t think threatening your mother with not writing to her anymore is a solution here. As far as I can tell, neither you nor your mother did anything wrong. My relationship with Seven is not a secret and as you know… Voyager and everything that happens on this ship has become a sort of focus point for some people back home.”

“Like my mother.” Harry growled. “She apparently goes around telling people that she knows everything about us. But I really never shared any… intimate details with her. You have to believe me.”

Kathryn was a little taken aback at that statement. She wanted to point out that _he_ did not know any intimate details about her relationship with Seven but she decided to let it slide. 

“I believe you Ensign and again, I am not blaming you for anything.” Kathryn assured him as she put her hand on his shoulder. “Now, I would advise you to start writing a letter back to your mother so it can go out with our next data stream to Earth. Don’t be too unkind to her. I know mothers can be though… believe me, but they usually mean well.”

“Thank you Captain.” Harry said, clearly relieved. “And again I am so sorry for whatever discomfort she might have caused you. Both of you.”

He looked at Seven, perhaps hoping to hear some statement of forgiveness from her as well. But she merely nodded at him and then looked back at Kathryn.

“Thank you for stopping by, Harry. We appreciate it.” Kathryn quickly said as she guided him back to the door. 

She still had a conversation with Seven to finish after all...

Harry left, still mumbling apologies right until the door closed behind him. Kathryn sighed and wiped her hands over her face again before she turned around to face her girlfriend.

“I am… very confused.” Seven said. Her discomfort was written all over her face and in her body language. Her stance was very stiff and there was a frown on her beautiful face while her lips were pressed tightly together.

“I know, darling. I’m sorry.” Kathryn quickly walked back to her girlfriend and took her hands into her own, giving them a reassuring squeeze. “Maybe you should read the letter my mother wrote to me and the articles that she included. Perhaps that might clear some things up.”

“But you haven’t finished reading them yourself.” Seven said, walking back to the couch and picking up the padd. She offered it back to Kathryn.

“I think I have read enough.” Kathryn said as she stared down at the padd. 

Seven nodded. Sitting back down, she looked up one more time and then she started to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always feel very sorry for Harry Kim whenever I watch the scene where he talks to his parents and not because he gets interrupted. ;) So when I needed a family member who might talk to the press, the choice was easy.
> 
> If you have the time, let me know what you think.


	3. Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!

Seven tried to read through the articles as fast as she could while still taking in all of the information. Kathryn was pacing the floor again and it made Seven really nervous. The words from the padd did not help either as she was slowly starting to understand why Kathryn was so upset.

Gretchen’s letter had almost seemed ominous. She had predicted that Kathryn would get upset and Seven wondered what Kathryn’s mother and sister were really thinking about the articles and all the attention the Janeway family was suddenly getting. Still Gretchen’s words had also been comforting, very different from the articles she had included. 

The word Borg seemed to appear in every other sentence... The journalists had also made some rather crude jokes about assimilation that Seven felt were really unnecessary. Most of the articles seemed to think that she was still very much like a Drone, some even thought that she still looked like one too! Somehow they had even found out about her recent surgery where the Doctor had changed the relays surrounding her cortical node.

It was all very unsettling, to know that all these strangers knew so much about her life or at least thought that they knew her. It rather felt like a huge invasion of her privacy. But that still didn’t explain Kathryn’s reaction… 

She herself never cared much about what other people thought about her. All she cared about these days was Kathryn’s opinion. So why would it matter to Kathryn so much that the people on Earth were making all these assumptions about her and her being Borg?

Then a closing sentence of one of the articles caught her eye.

_"In any case, when Voyager returns home to Earth, the people of Indiana might have to make some room. Because it seems that a Borg Cube will be parked right next to the Janeway farm in the foreseeable future."_

Seven had seen pictures of Kathryn’s family home. It was a beautiful and peaceful place. The thought of a Borg Cube standing in the middle of those idyllic fields was of course preposterous but it also made her feel a little nauseated. 

What would it actually be like when they reached Kathryn’s home? She had tried to picture being on Earth with Kathryn ever since their vacation on the Holodeck, enjoying walks with Kathryn, exploring the nature of Earth...

But somehow she had never really thought about how they would make living on Earth feasible for her. She still needed her regeneration alcoves after all... 

Was that what was bothering Kathryn? Had she also not considered all the consequences of their relationship and how it might change her own life on Earth?

Seven peaked at her girlfriend through her eyelashes. She was no longer pacing. Instead she was standing at the window, staring at the green planet that they were still orbiting. There was a frown on her face.

The feelings of confusion Seven had had were now replaced with fear and a slight panic. She quietly put down the padd and wondered what she should do now. She remained on the couch, frozen in indecision. 

Kathryn eventually turned around again, maybe because she had sensed Seven staring at her. “So… what do you think?”

“I… I don’t understand why they would write about this. Why does our relationship concern them at all?” Seven asked, her frustration giving way to anger.

“That is how gossip works I'm afraid.” Kathryn said as she slowly walked back towards her. “And it is one of the drawbacks of being a Starfleet Captain and… of being in a relationship with a Starfleet Captain I suppose.”

A silence followed. Seven wanted to ask Kathryn so many questions about why she was still upset for instance. But at the same time, she was afraid of the answers and of the decisions Kathryn might have made already.

“So what do you want to do now?” Seven finally asked her. Keeping the question vague on purpose.

“I guess we should just have dinner.” Kathryn said, staring at the replicator. “Then I should probably spend some time replying to all these letters and the inquiries from Starfleet.”

Seven realized that the quiet evening she had planned was not going to happen. The questions she had had about the strange green planet would have to wait. 

The blue planet Earth, lightyears away, had taken precedence. There was only a small window of communication opportunity between Earth and Voyager after all. So every time they received a new data stream, they had to reply quickly.

“Maybe we could just eat something simple and then we can both write our own letters back to Earth.” Kathryn said as she sat back down on the couch.

She was sitting close to Seven but they weren’t touching and somehow it felt like she was lightyears away. 

Seven’s eyes landed on the padd that was still on the dining table. It must contain her own letters which she hadn’t even looked at yet. She wasn't really in the mood for it anymore.

“I’ll replicate us some soup.” Seven said with a sigh before getting up. 

“Thank you.” Kathryn said but she was already reading her own letters again.

Placing two bowls of vegetable soup on the dinning table, Seven waited for Kathryn to join her. When she noticed that Kathryn was bringing her padd with her, she picked up her own and started to read while she ate. 

She had a letter from Gretchen as well which made her happy. Her aunt, who she had been in contact with from time to time, had written to her too and there were quite a few letters from people she didn’t know. 

Ignoring them for now, she started reading the letter from Kathryn’s mother. Something, she realized, she should have done before reading the articles and trying to talk to Kathryn about them.

_”I sent these articles to Kathryn as well but I wanted to include them with my letter to you too, just in case she might not share this information with you._

_Talk to Kathryn about this. I know it can be hard because she is a very stubborn person. Also, it can't be easy being a Starfleet Captain and always having to live in the spotlight. It is a lot of pressure._

_But I can tell you from my own experience that it isn’t easy being in a relationship with one either. It has it’s consequences and I’m afraid you might only just realize that now. You are still so far away from Earth but because news about Voyager is shared throughout the Alpha Quadrant these days, you are now sharing that spotlight with Kathryn._

_I told Kathryn not to let these articles get to her, a rather futile attempt from my part I know. But I want to say the same thing to you. In the end, it doesn’t matter what all these people think. What matters is that you have found each other, against all odds I might add, and that you love each other and make each other happy. I, for one, am very happy to know that Kathryn has you, even though your relationship might boost some of the gossip._

_Take good care of each other and write back to me whenever you can.”_

Relief filled Seven’s body and she looked up at Kathryn who was still frowning at her own padd. 

They would have to talk about these articles. Gretchen was right about that. But Seven did not know how to start that particular conversation up again. For now she would just write back to Kathryn’s mother, thanking her for her reassurance and acceptance.

Kathryn felt horrible. She felt like she had not explained the situation to Seven very well and had only made her girlfriend feel bad too. 

When she glanced up at Seven’s face, however, she noticed that her frown was gone and that it was actually replaced by a small smile. Maybe Seven’s letters were better than the ones she had received? Kathryn really hoped that all the journalists and critics would come to her first, before approaching her girlfriend. 

The letters from Starfleet had been mostly professional but even Starfleet Headquarters was apparently abuzz with the news of her relationship. They had send some reasonable questions. About Seven’s place in the chain of command for instance. Something that they had taken care of a long time ago. 

Then there were some standard questions, asked of any Captain who started a relationship with a subordinate. The questions were clinical and not at all humiliating but Kathryn still felt her cheeks burn when she read them. Never had she imagined herself in this position.

The articles had touched on so many of the same points. She was a Captain and she had started dating a member of her crew. Those were the kinds of tales you could find in cheap Holodeck novels…

And then there was the age difference… It had always been a touchy subject with her, especially in the beginning. But over time it had sort of disappeared to the background. Something that was there but that was not a problem. 

Now the pictures painted by these journalists had caused all of those feelings to rush back and to multiply. An experienced and older Captain seducing a much younger and very vulnerable member of her crew… 

As she read the questions of Starfleet, asking her to describe the start of their relationship, the descriptions from the articles completely clouded her mind.

_“How confusing the world must have been for Annika Hansen. Separated from the Borg Collective, alone among a crew of people she did not know. The last time she had had any real experience with other humans she had been just a small child! Suddenly that child, grown into an attractive young woman, had to find her way as an individual again. In doing so, she turned to the Captain of Voyager for guidance. And so the older more experienced Captain started to mold Seven of Nine back into the Annika Hansen she could have been if she had not been assimilated. Creating a very special relationship while doing so._

Those last sentences irritated Kathryn. She hadn’t tried to mold Seven… she had merely tried to guide her along, in finding her _own_ way. She especially never imagined creating any kind of relationship! That hadn’t been the goal at all, it was just something that had happened along the way…

Of course that was another topic that the articles loved to discuss. Her _loneliness._ How a lost Captain in the Delta Quadrant had turned to a young member of her crew to find some warmth in the dead cold of space… Those descriptions somehow cheapened their relationship. Seven was so much more to her than that!

Feeling her own frustration start to rise again, she quickly stood up which caused Seven to look up from her own padd in surprise. “Are you alright?”

“Yes.” Kathryn answered. “I’m sorry. It is easier for me to write this if I walk around.”

“Okay.” Seven said quietly. “If there is anything I can do to help…”

“Thank you. That is very sweet of you but I feel like I have to do this alone.” Kathryn answered. 

Seven frowned but then quickly looked down at her own padd again.

“I’m sorry, Seven.” Kathryn sighed. “I guess this is not how you imagined this evening to go.”

“It isn’t.” Seven admitted. “But I had forgotten about the new data stream coming in. I should have realized you needed time to reply to the letters.”

“You don’t have to stay.” Kathryn said but she immediately regretted her words as she noticed the flicker of hurt that crossed Seven’s face. “I mean… if my pacing and restlessness bothers you… I could understand if you wanted to leave.”

“Do _you_ want me to leave?” Seven countered.

“No…” Kathryn said as she walked over to Seven and brushed her hand across her cheek. “I don’t want you to leave.”

“Then I will stay.” Seven said and there was a rather determined and stubborn look in her fierce blue eyes.

Kathryn smiled at her and then leaned down to place a quick kiss on her lips. 

When she turned back to the questions from Starfleet, the answers seemed easier to find somehow. All her fears and doubts about their relationship, stirred up by the articles, were pushed back by the look in Seven’s eyes. She would just have to focus on her own version of the truth. Their version of the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time, let me know what you think.
> 
> I tried to give you an impression of what the articles were about without giving away too much. Writing these pieces was a little hard for me because I am not a (gossip) journalist. ;) Still I hope this chapter may have answered some of your questions.


	4. Jungle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, for your patience and for telling me your views on the story. I have said it before, but any kind of feedback is welcome. Don't be shy! I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter though.

Seven closed her eyes with a sigh when she heard the doors of the Astrometrics Lab open up behind her. She didn’t turn around because she was in no mood to talk to anyone this morning.

Kathryn had spent hours on replying to her letters last night and her mood had not improved. Seven had finished writing her letters to Gretchen and her aunt fairly quickly but then she had felt reluctant to write back to any of the other people who had written to her.

Most of them had turned out to be journalists or people who claimed to be involved in some sort of organization that was rehabilitating people who had been Borg drones. They had asked her questions about her life on Voyager, more specifically on how she had adapted to living on a Starfleet ship and on how she had been treated by the rest of the crew. But there had also been quite a few prying questions about her personal life, about Kathryn.

She had quickly decided not to reply to any of them. Instead she had spent the evening and the early hours of the night just watching Kathryn, listening to her sighs and low growls. From time to time her mind had come up with ways to open up the conversation about the articles again. But in the end she didn’t say anything. She wanted to give Kathryn time to reply to all the letters first. They would talk later. 

Eventually, Kathryn had gotten so tired that she had gone to bed and Seven had simply followed her example. As she took of her uniform and applied the lotion that would regenerate her skin, like she did every night, it did not feel as joyful as it had for the past few weeks. 

The lotion and the fact that she was now wearing normal clothing had been a huge step forward for her. She was closer to looking human now than she ever had been since her assimilation. But then again… it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. 

People would always see her as Borg because it seemed that almost everyone in the Alpha Quadrant knew her story now. Their eyes would always go to her implants first and they would always ask her questions about what it had been like, being Borg.

Sleep had eluded her and she had been amazed that Kathryn had fallen asleep so quickly. Even though the Captain was clearly troubled, she was still able to get the rest she needed to face another day. Seven wasn’t that lucky or trained and she had spent hours just staring at the ceiling and watching the soft green glow from the planet play across the walls.

Breakfast had been as quick and as busy as dinner the night before. Kathryn had looked rested but she was still very tense and Seven’s own lack of sleep had made her reluctant to push her girlfriend for chit chat so they had just eaten in silence.

Kathryn had then left for the Bridge and Seven had gone to the Astrometrics Lab. She had walked there as fast as possible, eager to avoid any crew members who might want to talk to her about the letters they had received from home. 

But now, someone had found her.

“Good morning, Seven.” It was B’Elanna Torres’ voice and in a way Seven felt relieved. Lieutenant Torres wasn’t one to drone on and on about Earth.

“Good morning, Lieutenant.” Seven replied without taking her eyes from the viewing screen on which she had plotted the orbits of the planet’s moons. 

“Did you see the new data stream from Earth?” B’Elanna asked her as she walked over to stand next to her.

Seven quickly looked at the Chief Engineer, searching her face for any sign of sarcasm. “What specific parts are you referring to?”

“The new science data! It seems the Starfleet Science Center has finally found a way to send us all of their new data so we won’t be as far behind from them anymore.” B’Elanna said enthusiastically. “There is some great new information about miniaturizing techniques. I was wondering if you’ve had a change to read it yet?”

“Oh. I’m sorry, I haven’t.” Seven answered. She hadn’t had the energy to open any more files from Earth this morning and instead had focused on the data coming in from the green planet.

“Are you alright?” B’Elanna suddenly asked, studying Seven’s face.

“I’m fine.” Seven replied curtly. “I will look at the new information right away. Is there a particular application for the new information you wanted to discuss?”

“I’m not sure yet but I can only imagine that many of our systems could profit from it.” B’Elanna said her voice wavering a bit. “Are you upset about the gossip about you and the Captain?”

Seven sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. “So you _do_ know about that?”

“I think everyone on this ship knows about _that_ by now.” B’Elanna said leaning back against one of the consoles. 

“Of course they do.” Seven said with gritted teeth.

“I thought you didn’t care about other people’s opinions.” B’Elanna continued.

“I didn’t and I don’t. But…” Seven hesitated. 

She looked back at the Lieutenant and suddenly felt self-conscious. Would she even want to hear about what was troubling her? What if she sounded silly? Would she still respect her as a colleague after hearing about her worries about her relationship? 

Then again, it could be useful to ask her about her views on the matter. In a way, she and B’Elanna had grown a lot closer over the past few months. They had become friends. But Seven was still not used to having friends and relying on them. 

B’Elanna just stared back at her. Waiting, not pushing but also not walking away. Finally, Seven decided to follow her human heart. 

“Kathryn got upset after reading some of the articles her mother had sent her.” She admitted in a small voice.

“Oh.” Was all B’Elanna said. Her tone was neutral. There was no amusement nor shock in it. The word was simply meant for Seven to continue. 

“I think… I think maybe she wasn’t prepared for everyone in the Alpha Quadrant to find out about us. I think maybe she is having doubts…” Seven stopped. 

Even though she knew B’Elanna was her friend and she could trust her, she wasn’t ready to tell her all of her fears. Like the fear that Kathryn had finally realized what dating a former Borg Drone could mean for her reputation.

“Did you talk to… Kathryn about this?” B’Elanna asked, choking a little on the Captain’s first name.

“We did… well not really. It was all very confusing last night.” Seven admitted, looking back at the factual science on the screen. The formulas of the orbiting moons were clear and predictable. If only human interactions could be like that.

“Then maybe you should try again.” B’Elanna simply said. “I know it can be hard. Believe me, I am no expert at emotional conversations. But it sounds to me like you are assuming an awful lot right now without even knowing what she really thinks about it.”

Seven looked back at B’Elanna’s dark eyes with a smile. “You are very wise, Lieutenant.”

This earned her a small bump on the arm from the Chief Engineer. “Don’t you ever forget it, Seven.”

They were quiet for a while and then Seven pulled up the index from the data stream from Earth so she could change the topic. “Which parts would you like me to study first?”

B’Elanna quickly found the papers that she found most interesting and Seven could see right away why the Chief Engineer was so excited. It seemed that Starfleet had continued their research into the Doctor’s futuristic mobile emitter and it had caused some significant breakthroughs for their own technology which they had finally been able to share with Voyager. 

“Maybe we can discuss this further over lunch?” B’Elanna asked her gently and Seven quickly agreed. She hadn’t made any lunch plans with Kathryn after all. 

“Oh and Seven…” B’Elanna said right before stepping through the doors and into the corridor. “Talk to your Captain.”

The doors closed before Seven could respond but B’Elanna was right of course and her advice was the same as Gretchen had given her. Shaking her head a little and squaring her shoulders, she quickly pushed all of those thoughts to the back of her mind before she immersed herself in the new science in front of her. She would prepare for her talk with Kathryn later.

When Kathryn walked onto the Bridge, her eyes immediately landed on Ensign Kim. He had apparently come in early for his shift, just like her. He gave her a nervous smile which only reminded Kathryn of their conversation the day before.

So she quickly walked passed him and over to Chakotay. He stood up as she approached but she did not sit down in her Captain’s chair. Instead, she quickly asked him about their status and about the away teams that were going to be send down to the planet this morning. 

“Will you be joining them again?” Chakotay asked her, trying to catch her gaze. 

“No, I’m afraid not.” Kathryn answered as she stared at the planet through the viewscreen. “I will be in my Ready Room. I still have to finish some letters to Starfleet before our data stream is send back.”

“I guess you got a lot of mail last night.” Chakotay said. 

It wasn’t a question and Kathryn quickly looked up at his face to read his expression. He wasn’t smiling but there was a rather knowing look in his eyes.

“Yes, I did.” She simply replied, very aware of the rest of the Bridge crew listening in.

“Well, good luck. If there is anything I can help you with, just let me know.” He said, before quickly placing his hand on her shoulder to give it a small reassuring squeeze. 

“Thank you.” She smiled back at him. “You have the Bridge.” 

On her way to her Ready Room she kept her eyes trained on Tuvok who nodded at her but other than that radiated his usual calm. Something she really envied him for right now.

When the door closed behind her, she heaved a sigh of relief and then walked over to the replicator. It was going to be her third cup of coffee of the day and her shift had barely started but she really needed it, even though she had gotten quite some decent hours of sleep during the night.

The same could not be said for Seven. She hadn’t said much about it over breakfast but Kathryn could tell that her girlfriend had been awake for most of the night.

She had wanted to talk to her about the letters and the articles they had received. She still didn't even know how many Seven had gotten or if her mother had written to her about the gossip too. 

But somehow she hadn’t been able to find the right words. In a way she had just wanted to be alone. To make sense of the mess in her own head _before_ she talked to Seven or anyone else.

This had always been her way. Trying to figure things out for herself first before asking others for advice or letting them tell her their opinion. It hadn’t always worked out for the best but for now it was the only way she could deal with her conflicting emotions and feelings of… shame.

Which was why she was very happy to be back in her Ready Room. A quiet and private place for her to focus and work.

As she sat down behind her desk, she pulled up the questionnaire from Starfleet again. It had to be her priority at the moment so she wanted to go over her answers one more time before she even moved on to the other letters. 

She knew she wasn’t going to reply to all of them and in a way she also knew that she shouldn’t. Nothing she would tell these people would ever be enough. They would just twist her words for a better story and then come up with a bunch of new questions. 

At least she would reply to the letters some old friends had sent her. Some were even congratulating her with her relationship, which was nice. At least not everyone back home was focusing on the fact that she had fallen in love with a subordinate, a much younger subordinate… 

Again her eyes were drawn to the windows and for a few seconds she simply stared at the green planet before ripping her gaze away from it. She had to focus now. Then if the data stream had gone out, she could go back to the planet and take a refreshing walk in the dense jungles. Hopefully that would be enough so she could face the others again, and more importantly Seven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time, let me know what you think. The pace of this story will pick up soon.


	5. Green

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and for your patience. A special thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on the last chapter. Feedback is always welcome. Enjoy this new chapter!

Kathryn pushed her chair back from her desk with a groan. After spending hours on her correspondence, she felt exhausted and it wasn’t even noon yet. The deadline for finishing the letters home was upon them though. Chakotay had just made a ship wide announcement to remind everyone to upload their files and as captain, she had quickly obeyed. 

In the end, she had come up with a standard letter thanking all the friends and strangers who had congratulated her on her relationship with Seven. The curious journalists and the people asking annoying question would not get a response. Mostly because she didn’t have time to write to them but also because she simply did not want to. 

Sentences from their letters kept playing through her mind and when she closed her eyes, the words leaped up at her from the darkness. 

_”Do you think it is appropriate to start a relationship with someone who used to be part of the Borg Collective?”_

_“Seven of Nine must be a very traumatized and vulnerable individual right now. Even though you must experience some loneliness out there in the Delta Quadrant, I cannot help but think that starting a relationship with her is unwise and in a way even selfish.”_

_“I think Annika Hansen is too inexperienced and too troubled by her own past to be dating anyone right now. Let alone a Starfleet Captain.”_

_“The age difference alone could raise some eyebrows among some of our more conservative colleagues. But Kathryn, the difference in rank and the fact that she used to be Borg worries me much more.”_

It was ridiculous in a way that all these people, most of them complete strangers, seemed to think that they knew her or Seven! That they thought they had the right to give her advice about their relationship. But a part of her mind couldn’t help but wonder whether there wasn’t some truth behind their exaggerations.

Seven _had_ missed many important experiences, growing up Borg. The crew of Voyager had taught her a lot but still… even though she was physically the strongest of them, in a way she was also their weakest link.

Frustrated and a little disgusted with her own train of thought, Kathryn quickly stood up. She had tried to calm her thoughts by being alone, but instead they were now spinning completely out of control. She had to get a grip on herself. 

She knew who she was, she knew who Seven was and she knew who they were when they were together. Why did she doubt everything now, simply because of some letters from strangers who were lightyears away? 

Her door chiming brought her abruptly back to the present. She quickly wiped her hands over her face and straightened her uniform. “Come!”

She cringed. Her voice had sounded emotional and almost angry. When the door opened, Chakotay was revealed hesitating in the doorway with a very questioning look on his face. “Captain? I hope I am not disturbing you.”

“No, please come in.” She sighed as she quickly turned around to hide her face and to walk over to the replicator. “Can I get you anything?”

His eyes flickered to the numerous empty cups on her desk. “Um… some herbal tea, please. Thank you.”

Kathryn had noticed his look and quickly decided against replicating another cup of coffee. Her heart was beating rather fast as it was, so she just asked the Computer for a glass of water. 

“Did you finish all of your correspondence for the data stream in time?” He asked her as he sat down in one of the chairs facing hers.

“I did. At least, everything that I wanted to send out today.” She answered him before sitting down behind her desk herself. 

He waited a few moments, maybe hoping that she would elaborate but she didn’t know what else to say about it. “Good. Our data stream was sent off without any problems on our end.” He eventually said.

“Is that why you wanted to speak to me?” She asked him, knowing full well that that couldn’t be all but she wanted him to get to the point. 

“Well yes. I also wanted to show you this report about the planet.” He said as he handed her a padd.

She gratefully accepted it, eager to get the conversation away from the letters from home and back to the green bounty they were surveying. She quickly scanned the report. “Our teams have found an interesting mineral site?”

“Yes, it seems that they have.” He answered. “The samples they sent back to Voyager have shown great promise. The Engineering Department thinks that this mineral could be very useful in lining certain parts of our engines, hopefully making them even more efficient. They have requested permission to excavate a larger part of it so that they can perform more tests.”

“Very well.” Kathryn said as she handed the padd back to him.

Chakotay shifted a little in his chair looking down at the padd. Then he glanced back up at her and squared his shoulders. “I also wondered if you might want to talk.”

“About what?” Kathryn played the fool, trying to win more time to sort through the whirlwind of thoughts in her head. 

“About the letters from home… about the gossip concerning your relationship with Seven.” He prompted. 

Kathryn sighed as she stood up again and walked over to her window. “Is the whole ship talking about it?” She finally asked him in a soft voice.

“Well you know how the crew gets on mail days.” He said gently. “They always get very excited about any news from Earth and the fact that Voyager… that _you_ are such a hot topic on Earth right now, it makes them… chatty.”

“Chatty?” She quickly turned around to look at him. 

“Yes… I mean some of them are trying to find out who blabbed about the two of you.” He quickly explained. “Harry Kim has been given some sideways glances because his mother is one of the people who openly discusses our lives on Voyager. Others were just trying to figure out how they should reply to all the questions they got from family members.”

Kathryn stared up at the ceiling with a groan. “I still can’t believe it… why are so many people interested in this? In Seven and me?”

“I have to admit, I understand them.” Chakotay said as he stood up as well. “It is almost like a fairy tale.”

“What do you mean?” She asked him, surprised.

“Well the brave Starfleet Captain, trying to get her crew back home encounters one of the first humans ever to be assimilated by the Borg. She then rescues her, freeing her from the Collective and eventually they even fall in love.” He summarized. “You have to admit that it makes for quite a romantic story.”

Kathryn blinked at him for a few moments. Then she walked back to her desk and picked up a padd. “I don’t think that that is how the people of Earth see it though.”

She handed him the padd with the articles her mother had sent her ready to read on the screen. He quickly scanned them and then looked back at her. “I think it is. I mean these are just a few of the articles written about you and I guess your mother sent you the ones that were the most extreme. These people might stress certain aspects a little bit more than others…”

“Like the age difference.” Kathryn quickly contributed. “Or the fact that I am her Captain.”

“Yes, well I guess some people think that that makes the story even more interesting.” He grinned. 

“I am not joking, Chakotay.” Kathryn told him with a straight face. “You should read some of the letters I have received! People were telling me off. They told me that I shouldn’t date Seven because she is a traumatized, vulnerable young woman and I…” 

A snort from Chakotay cut her off and she swiftly pinned him down with her Janeway stare as she raised an eyebrow.

“I’m sorry, Kathryn.” He said while raising his hands. “But I think that description of Seven is a bit…off the mark. Don’t you agree?”

“She _is_ traumatized and she _is_ a lot younger than I am. Besides her recent memory loss makes it all the more… complicated.” She finished weakly, staring down at her own hands, wringing them together.

“I am not trying to diminish what Seven has gone through. Not while she was a Borg Drone nor as she tried to regain her individuality here on Voyager.” He said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. “But Seven is one of the strongest people I know. You both are. She has already overcome so much and I think your relationship doesn’t make her more vulnerable… it makes her stronger. You are both strongest when you are together… And you were both pretty intimidating to begin with.”

Kathryn couldn’t help the short laugh that escaped her lips before she smiled up at her friend and First Officer. She nodded her head, unable to find the words to respond to everything he had said.

“Have you talked to Seven about this?” He asked softly.

“I tried.” She admitted. “But it didn’t go so well.”

“Then maybe that should be your priority right now. Not what the people on Earth think about your relationship.” He said as he handed her back the padd.

“You are right. I will… eventually.” She conceded, putting the padd down on her desk. “Why are you always right?”

“I learned from the best.” He gave her a wink and then took a step back, creating some distance again and signaling that the personal conversation was over. “Now that the data stream is sent out, do you want to go back to the surface to see that mineral deposit for yourself?”

“Thank you, I would like that.” She said with a sigh. She shot the padd on her desk one last look before leaving her Ready Room.

Seven quickened her pace as she walked to the Engineering Department. She didn’t even notice the crew members who were greeting her in the corridors as she practically flew past them before storming in through the big doors. 

“Seven!” B’Elanna said surprised. “What time is it? I thought we were going to meet in the Mess Hall.”

“Yes, we did say that.” Seven said a little breathless. “But I couldn’t wait. This research is too… intriguing.”

“I’m glad you agree.” B’Elanna smiled as she recognized the burning passion in Seven’s eyes that mirrored her own. “So what do you think? Could we apply it to our systems.”

“Yes, many of them, I would think.” Seven said as she joined B’Elanna at a console and quickly pulled up the papers from Earth with her own notes.

“Wow. You have been hard at work.” B’Elanna sounded impressed as she tried to read everything Seven had written.

Seven waited impatiently, giving the Chief Engineer some time to catch up with her thoughts. She looked around the room while she shifted back and forth on her feet, trying to distract herself from the staggering opportunities this research provided them. 

The miniaturizing theories put forth by Starfleet offered them amazing chances to improve their systems so they would become more efficient. Still, applying them to their systems would be a challenge with the limited resources they had. But that only made it more enticing and daunting at the same time. 

“You really think we could apply this theory to our biofilters?” B’Elanna asked her eventually.

“I know I haven’t figured out all the details yet. But it did seem promising.” Seven quickly said. “With time, I am sure we could figure it out.”

B’Elanna smiled at her and then returned her attention back to the screens. “I have to say that I did not even consider the systems that are linked to our environmental controls or other biological functions. I mean how would we even combine them with this new theory?”

Seven was quiet for a few moments, thinking as the Lieutenant simply looked at her. Her mind was racing with all of the technologies she was familiar with and that could help with this. 

Maybe she had overstretched a little, maybe these particular systems weren’t suited for these changes… Systems that required a biological connection were always tricky after all and altering them, especially making them more compact, was something that could only be done if one was absolutely sure of the results. Or very desperate because there weren’t any other options. Like the time when she had…

“Seven?” B’Elanna’s voice sounded as if it came from far away. “What are you thinking about?”

“I just had another idea.” Seven told her without taking her eyes off the screens. “These techniques… they could be applied to another project I have worked on in the past. A personal project.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time, please let me know what you think. 
> 
> After the last chapter I wanted to jump right into the action... but I couldn't resist this little cliffhanger and I wanted to give Kathryn some time with a friend as well. Let me know what you think.


	6. Roots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and for all of your feedback. Now then... buckle up.

The minute she stepped into the tree line Kathryn felt herself relax. The trees not only shielded her from the eyes of her crew working in their makeshift mine but they also shielded her from the noise of the excavation. Now she was all alone with only the abundant flora of the planet to keep her company.

Kathryn had tried to show interest in the minerals that the Engineers had found but she hadn’t been able to call upon her natural curiosity the way she normally would have. Instead she had kept looking into their eyes, searching for any sign that her authority as captain might have been compromised by the letters they had received from home. 

She hadn’t been able to really help out with the work either as the machines they had beamed down were doing most of the work. So after almost two hours, she had excused herself and told them that she was going back into the forest. Some had offered to go with her but she had waved them away. She wouldn’t go far and besides, apart from their own crewmembers on the surface, there were no animals on this strange green planet.

The wildness of the forest prevented her from walking as fast as her anxiety wanted her to. After almost tripping over some tree roots a few times, she finally slowed down and took more care not to damage any of the plants by accident. Eventually she sat down on a log to try and calm her thoughts by simply being quiet and still. 

She crossed her legs and considered meditation for a moment before she realized that that wasn’t a smart thing to do on an unfamiliar planet. So she kept her eyes open and simply looked around as she took deep breaths of clean forest air. 

The surrounding nature, even in its unfamiliar form, did have a calming effect on her but she was still very aware of the fact that she was hiding. She was a Starfleet Captain and she was hiding in a forest because she was afraid of what her crew was thinking about her. 

The sound of her own scoff echoed against the trees as the absurdity of the situation dawned on her. She shouldn’t care what the others were thinking, not her crew nor the people back home on Earth. Chakotay had been right about that. The only thing she should care about right now is what Seven was thinking about the whole situation. Determined, she decided to use the calming presence of the trees and the flowers to come up with a plan to talk to her girlfriend tonight, after their shifts had ended.

Picking up a vine from the forest floor, she ran her fingers over the soft leaves while she tried to come up with a good strategy. She would simply have to ask Seven how she felt about the articles from Earth. She had not seemed as upset as she herself had been but then again… it was sometimes still difficult to figure out what Seven was really thinking.

The one thing that was clear to her was that they needed to talk about their relationship. She would have to ask Seven if she felt that she had taken advantage of her. She had to ask her about her first months on Voyager and whether or not she had felt that she had used her Captain’s authority to mold her in any way. 

Then she would also need to bring up the age thing… Seven had always been reluctant to talk about it. In the beginning of their relationship she had told Kathryn that it simply did not seem like an important issue to her. Now that she had read other people’s opinion on it, she might feel differently…

After mulling this over for a while Kathryn shook her head and looked down with a sigh at the leaves of the vine she had apparently shredded in her hands. It was useless to try and come up with things to say to Seven without knowing what her girlfriend was actually thinking.

Letting the vine and the shredded leaves fall to the forest floor, she brushed off her uniform as she stood up. Squaring her shoulders she took one last deep breath and then contacted Voyager to beam her up.

Seven was both happy and a little nervous that Kathryn had asked her to come back to her quarters to talk. When the Captain had hailed her, she had quickly looked at B’Elanna’s face and the raised eyebrows of the Lieutenant had let her know that this was not the time to refuse.

But Seven really wanted to continue their work… Still she had told Kathryn she was on her way. Because she also wanted to tell her girlfriend about her new project. She wanted her to know that she was working on a solution. 

When she stepped through the door of the Captain’s quarters, Kathryn wasn’t on the coach or sitting down at the table but she was pacing the floor again.

Seven stopped in the middle of the living room and even though she had been itching to tell Kathryn everything that had happened that day, she suddenly couldn’t find the words.

“Hi.” Kathryn simply said, a nervous smile on her face.

“Hi.” Seven replied, studying that smile before taking a few steps closer and slowly leaning in for a kiss. “Are you alright?”

“Yes… Sorry I interrupted… whatever it was you were doing.” Kathryn said as she took Seven’s hands in her own. “I just felt like we needed to talk.”

Seven simply nodded at her. It did not feel right to be the one to start talking because clearly Kathryn had been planning to say something that was important to her.

“Last night, when the letters from home came in… I didn’t react very well.” Kathryn said as she stared down at their joined hands. “I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s alright.” Seven said softly.

“No it’s not.” Kathryn looked back up and Seven noticed the storm of emotions in her gray eyes. “I didn’t explain it well yesterday and then I didn’t say anything at all this morning…”

“Neither did I ask you any questions.” Seven quickly added, eager to take at least some of the guilt away from Kathryn.

“It’s just… I wasn’t prepared for those letters.” Kathryn looked down again. “I wasn’t prepared for what the people back home would say… about us.”

The silence that followed became increasingly painful and Seven’s patience finally ran out. “It’s alright, Kathryn. I have found a solution.”

“A solution?” Kathryn frowned as she returned Seven’s gaze.

“Yes.” Seven smiled down at her. “Of course it won’t fix all of our problems and people on Earth will probably still stare and ask questions… but it is a start.”

“What are you talking about?” Kathryn asked. 

Seven suddenly realized that Kathryn looked utterly confused and tired as well so she quickly pulled her along to the couch so they could sit down.

“Starfleet shared some of it’s newest technologies with us through the data stream.” Seven started to explain. “Including a very interesting theory about miniaturization that was actually inspired by the Doctor’s mobile emitter.”

The frown did not leave Kathryn’s face and she looked like she was having trouble trying to follow Seven’s thoughts so Seven quickly pushed on. “B’Elanna wanted to talk to me about this new theory because she realized that we could apply it to many of our systems. But then I realized that I could also apply it to one of my personal projects.”

“Okay…” Kathryn said. “But what does that have to do with us?”

“I will explain.” Seven said, finding it difficult to stay seated on the edge of the couch. She felt a very eager happiness bubbling up inside her. Soon the worry and the stress would leave Kathryn’s face. “Do you remember when Icheb’s parents wanted to take him away from us?”

“Of course.” Kathryn said slowly and clearly surprised. 

Seven did not like to linger on the topic of Icheb’s family any longer than she needed to, so she quickly continued. “I made him a portable regeneration unit. So he would be able to regenerate on his home planet.”

She waited for a few heartbeats, hoping to see realization grow in Kathryn’s eyes but they remained filled with confusion and stress. 

“I was never able to make such an unit for myself because my implants are a lot more complex than Icheb’s and well… it was simply impossible.” Seven almost tripped over her words in her excitement. “But now with this new theory, I think I can do it. It would solve so many of the problems that I had with it!”

She studied Kathryn’s face but there was still no chance in it. Maybe she hadn’t explained it well? 

Seven grabbed hold of both of Kathryn’s hands and squeezed them tightly. “What I am trying to tell you is that I am going to build a portable regeneration unit for myself. A small one. That way I won’t need the alcoves in the Cargo Bay anymore. It would solve our problems!”

“How?” Kathryn’s voice was soft and a little distant. “How would that solve our problems?”

“Kathryn, don’t you see?” Seven jumped up, unable to sit any longer. “Did you hear what I just said? I won’t need the Borg alcoves anymore if this works out!”

Kathryn simply blinked at her and Seven’s own excitement started to fade and it was being replaced by frustration. “Without the alcoves… well you wouldn’t need to ‘park a Borg cube’ next to your family farm when we get back to Earth.”

“Seven, I…” Kathryn started out but then she stopped and looked down at her own hands.

“Why are you not excited about this?” Seven asked her and she couldn’t keep the hurt undertone out of her voice.

“I am! Seven, really.” Kathryn said as she stood up too. “I just don’t understand what this has to do with what I wanted to talk to you about. The articles…”

“The articles were about you dating a former Borg Drone.” Seven interrupted her. “About you bringing a former member of the Collective back to Earth as your partner. Someone who still needs Borg technology to survive. This… my project, would solve that!”

“Seven, that is not what these articles are about.” Kathryn said as she walked to the table to pick up a padd.

“I’m sorry but I don’t understand.” Seven said, slowly getting angry. “Did you skip over the words Borg, Drone and Collective that were present in every other sentence.”

“These articles are not about your history with the Borg. They are about the fact that I am your Captain.” Kathryn said as she held out the padd with the article titles visible on the screen. “And the fact that I am fifteen years older than you!”

“Really, Kathryn? The age thing again?” Seven said as she turned away from her. She did not need to look at the padd to remember the article titles and more importantly, she did not want to show Kathryn how much her lack of response to her breakthrough was hurting her.

“Does it not bother you?” Kathryn’s voice had turned soft and its tone caused Seven to turn around again. 

“No, it doesn’t bother me that you are older than me. Nor that you are my Captain.” Seven said, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible but failing. “What bothers me is that it still clearly bothers you. Even after all this time. And it bothers me that these strangers in the Alpha Quadrant can make you feel this way…” 

A ringing silence followed during which Kathryn stared down at the padd. Seven’s mind was frantically trying to make sense of the situation and then a cold feeling crept up in her chest. “Is this really just about the age and the rank thing, Kathryn?”

“What do you mean?” Kathryn asked in that same distant soft voice.

“Are you not using this as an excuse? To cover up the fact that it actually _does_ bother you that they talk about me as if I was still Borg?” Seven hated how her voice trembled but she could not stop talking. “Maybe you never fully realized how your life on Earth would change if you brought me along with you… and now it scares you.”

“Seven, please!” Kathryn’s voice started to rise again. “ _I_ am actually trying to have a honest conversation with you. Why would you think that I would lie to you about this?”

“Because I can’t understand it, Kathryn!” Seven shouted. “I can’t understand why something as silly as age or rank would make you doubt us!. Even though we both know that when people look at us they don’t notice _those_ things! What they see is a former Drone and a Starfleet Captain. That is the real problem here and I am telling you that I am trying to fix that!”

“There is nothing to fix, Seven!” Kathryn actually took a few steps towards Seven but she quickly crossed her arms in front of her, shielding herself from any physical contact.

“So you don’t want me working on this regeneration machine?” Seven asked. 

“What… I… I don’t know.” Kathryn raked her fingers through her hair. 

With a pang of guilt Seven realized that Kathryn looked even more tired and sad than when this conversation had started. But she also couldn’t stop the crushing waves of disappointment that washed over her. Being free from her Borg alcoves would be an immense relief to her… Kathryn should understand that.

“When I started working on the lotion I did not tell you about it.” Seven said in a voice as devoid of emotion as she could muster. “I did not share it with you because I did not want you to be disappointed just in case it would fail. Now I realize that was all for naught because you simply don’t care.”

She took two steps towards the door before she felt Kathryn’s hand close tightly around her left arm. 

It would have been so easy. To wrest herself free and to just keep walking. 

But Kathryn’s voice stopped her. “Seven, please.”

Turning around, she kept her eyes on the floor because they were filling up with tears and she did not want Kathryn to see them. But Kathryn’s soft hand came up to lift her chin as it had done countless of times before.

“I _do_ care, Seven.” Kathryn choked out, her own gray eyes swimming with tears as well. “I just… I guess we both look at these articles and… maybe our relationship from very different perspectives.”

Seven swallowed a few times, blinking her eyes furiously to make the moisture go away without shedding a tear. There was so much she wanted to say, so much she wanted to do but her emotions were completely blocking her. “I need to regenerate.”

Kathryn’s hand fell away from Seven’s face and Seven had to look away from the hurt in Kathryn’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Seven.”

“Me too.” Seven said before she stepped through the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry...
> 
> If you have the time and you don't hate me too much, let me know what you think.  
> I'll try to post the next chapter before Christmas.
> 
> The idea for the portable regeneration unit was obviously inspired by S06E19 Child's Play.


	7. Fruit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! I hope you'll all have a great time even though you might not be able to celebrate the holidays in the way you wanted to. Let's remember all the things we have to be thankful for, especially now.
> 
> Thank you for all the feedback I received on the last chapter. Really meant a lot to me. I hope you'll enjoy this next chapter as well.

“Good morning, Captain!” Neelix’s cheerful voice hit Kathryn hard when she stepped into the Mess Hall. She had a splitting headache and she only came in here hoping to run into Seven.

“Can I interest you in a new flavor of porridge? I added these fruits that we found on the surface.” Neelix continued excitedly and completely oblivious to her mood. “I don’t have a name for them yet, so I am asking everyone who eats it to come up with a suggestion. Kind of like a prize competition. The winner will get a pie baked with the fruit.” 

Kathryn looked at the porridge he was holding out to her. It had a sickly yellow-green color and one look around the room showed her that most crewmembers had chosen the more traditional dishes that were on the menu today. 

“I’m sorry, Neelix. But I am not here for breakfast.” She told him, waving away the food. “Have you seen Seven?”

“Oh, well she came in here pretty early.” Neelix told her. “Like you, she refused all of my new dishes and simply replicated one of her nutritional drinks. She did not even stay to drink it.”

Kathryn nodded at him and then hesitated a little too long which gave Neelix enough time to study her face. “Is everything alright between you two?” He asked her in a hushed voice.

“Yes, of course.” She replied automatically. “Well… actually we are having a bit of a misunderstanding.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Neelix said. “I hope you will fix that soon. Do you want to bring her some of these cookies as a peace offering?”

He held out a plate of cookies which were also green for some reason. Did everything that came off this planet turn out to be green on the inside? 

“I don’t think cookies are the way to go when it comes to Seven, Neelix.” Kathryn said. “But thank you. I will just go and talk to her.”

“Good luck, Captain!” Neelix smiled at her. “Let me know if I can be of any assistance.”

The idea of asking Neelix for assistance with her fight with Seven seemed a little crazy to her but she did not tell him that. Afraid to hurt his feelings, she quickly turned around and left without saying another word.

She also wanted to leave the Mess Hall as quickly as possible because she had become aware of the looks thrown her way again. Of course it was normal for people to look at her and say ‘good morning’ to her, she was their captain after all. But her insecurities and self-conscious feelings from yesterday had not disappeared overnight. 

She had barely slept, lying awake and thinking about all the things she should have said to Seven. Three times she had gotten up, ready to go to the Cargo Bay but every time she had stopped at her door and gone back to bed. She told herself that she did not want to disrupt Seven’s regeneration cycle but she knew that that was just an excuse. 

In the corridor she quickly asked the Computer for Seven’s location and then immediately set off towards the Astrometrics Lab. She would not turn back again, she told herself. She had to see this through. 

Her bravado almost left her when she got to the big doors of the lab but the anxious feeling inside of her gave her the last push she needed to step through.

Seven was standing at the central consoles of the big room, staring at the viewing screen which was filled with schematics and tables. She did not turn around so Kathryn walked over to her slowly. A small frightened voice inside her head told her that she could still turn around and leave but she ignored it. “Good morning, Seven.”

She noticed a small twitch in Seven’s left shoulder right before she turned around. Her eyes were wary and they also looked tired. Perhaps her regeneration cycle had not gone very well despite the fact that Kathryn had not disturbed her directly. 

“Good morning, Kathryn.” Seven said in a cautious voice.

Even though Kathryn had spent most of the night coming up with things to say to Seven, in that moment all those ideas were gone. All she could do was stare into Seven’s blue eyes. 

“How was your regeneration?” She finally asked, suddenly very aware of the remaining distance between them. 

“I did not complete a cycle.” Seven admitted. “How did you sleep?”

“I barely slept.” Kathryn said as she took another step closer. “I kept thinking about our… fight.”

Seven opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again, pressing her lips tightly together. 

“Seven…” Kathryn pleaded. “Are we… okay?”

A small sigh escaped Seven’s lips as she closed her eyes for a few heartbeats. That moment, waiting for an answer, seemed both long and short to Kathryn.

“Of course we are.” Seven finally said as she reached out a hand to take Kathryn’s in her own. 

Kathryn didn’t hesitate and used the contact to pull Seven in closer and envelop her in a hug. She let out a big sigh of relief, enjoying the familiar feeling of Seven’s arms wrapping themselves around her as she breathed in the scent of Seven and her lotion. 

Eventually it was Seven who broke the silence. “I can’t help but think…”

“What? What do you think?” Kathryn asked her, pulling back again to look into her girlfriend’s face. 

“I think that maybe we both need some time.” Seven said keeping her eyes trained on Kathryn’s face. “The fact that you feel this way about those messages from Earth… it confuses me and… it scares me too.”

“I’m sorry.” Kathryn reached out a hand and gently stroked her thumb over Seven’s soft cheek. “I’m sorry… I don’t know what’s happening to me.” 

“Do you think…” Seven bit her bottom lip. “Do you think that there is anything I can do to help?”

Kathryn had a feeling that that was not what Seven really wanted to ask her but she was grateful for the question anyway. “No, honey. I don’t think so… I don’t know.”

Seven quickly averted her eyes but Kathryn had seen the look of hurt in them. Before she could say anything else though, the doors of the lab opened up and Icheb walked in.

He froze as he saw them standing in the middle of the room. “I’m sorry… I will come back later.”

“No, Icheb.” Seven’s voice rang out across the room as she took a step back from Kathryn. “Come in… the Captain and I… we are done here.” 

Kathryn studied Seven’s face closely, trying to catch her eye but she wouldn’t return her gaze. Her last words worried Kathryn and even hurt a little. She hadn’t liked the twitch in Seven’s jaw nor the way her eyes had sparked as she had said them. 

Icheb shuffled further into the room but then quickly veered off and walked over to a console on the right hand wall. Giving them space.

Seven’s hands were already dancing across the panels in front of her again and Kathryn knew that their conversation was over. Once again without much success. 

“I am going back to the surface of the planet.” Kathryn told Seven. 

Those words surprised even herself because she had not made any plans this morning except for wanting to talk to her girlfriend. Still, all of her instincts told her to flee back to the safety of the forest. 

“Maybe we can have dinner together tonight? In my quarters?” The pleading tone was back in her voice but this time she felt that it was completely justified as she held her breath, waiting for Seven’s answer.

“Okay.” Seven said. 

Her answer was short but at least she had agreed and she had looked back at her while saying it. Her face was still filled with an anxious energy but at least she was not pushing her away. 

Kathryn nodded at her and briefly touched her arm before leaning in for a small kiss. Then she walked back towards the doors. After wishing Icheb a good day, she stepped out into the corridor, her anxiety and guilt of this morning replaced with confusion.

Seven waited for Icheb to start asking her questions about Kathryn but he seemed to realize how tense she was. He did not say anything at all and Seven was grateful for this small moment of peace in which she could try to pull herself together again.

Hearing Kathryn tell her that there was nothing she could do to help her had been hard. If she was honest, she did not really know what her place was anymore. Weren’t people in a relationship supposed to support each other? Help each other out when they had problems? Should she have pushed Kathryn a little more, demanded to let her help her?

Then her eyes landed on the schematics on the screen again, schematics for her portable regeneration unit. Kathryn had not even looked at them... She had not said anything about her new project.

Seven sighed as her disappointment, anger and frustration returned. They had briefly disappeared after Kathryn’s kiss but now they were back. She wanted to forget about it all and immerge herself in the clear, cold science in front of her but Kathryn’s words haunted her and the silence in the lab now made her feel like the Captain was still there. Like a ghost.

Thankfully that silence was broken rather abruptly when the doors opened again and B’Elanna Torres walked in. “Good morning! Sorry I am a bit late but Tom wanted to try out all of these new crazy dishes that Neelix has come up with and then he had to throw up… It was a mess. A green mess... Anyway, what are we building today?”

She stopped in the middle of the room, looking at both Seven and Icheb. “What happened?”

“Seven and the Captain are having a fight.” Icheb told her in a small voice.

“We are not fighting.” Seven quickly interjected. “We are… I don’t know what we are! But we are not fighting.” 

“Is this still about the letters from Earth?” B’Elanna asked her, walking over to Seven with Icheb in her wake. 

Seven frowned at their curious faces. She was not at all ready to talk about this with them. “Can we please just focus on the project?”

“Okay… did you tell her about your idea for a portable regeneration unit?” B’Elanna asked, clearly not ready to let the topic of her relationship go.

“Yes, I did and she doesn’t care.” Seven said annoyed as she turned back to the screen. 

“I find that a bit hard to believe.” B’Elanna’s voice turned soft. “What happened?”

“Nothing happened!” Seven pinched her nose, screwing her eyes shut. “We are just… she said that we are looking at our relationship from different perspectives. She actually thinks that these articles from Earth are not about me having been Borg and needing Borg technology to survive but that they are about her… being my Captain and being older.”

“Oh…” B’Elanna said after an awkward silence in which Seven caught her exchanging a look with Icheb from the corner of her eye. “So does that mean you want to stop building the unit?”

“No, of course I still want the unit.” Seven quickly told her. “I don’t care what the people on Earth think and right now... I don’t even care what Kathryn thinks. She might not believe that this unit is a big deal… but it is to me. I don’t want to regenerate in those Borg alcoves forever!”

She felt suddenly exhausted, explaining all of this. Somehow B’Elanna had a way of pulling things out of her. It was one of the reasons why they had fought so much during her first year on Voyager. 

“I understand.” Icheb’s small voice made Seven turn around. “I remember how happy I was when I did not need to regenerate anymore, after I gave you my cortical node. I also remember how I felt when you made me the portable unit… when I went to visit my parents.”

The brief look of anguish on his face tugged at Seven’s heart and suddenly she felt even more ashamed. She realized how incredibly self-absorbed she had been.

“I’m sorry, Icheb.” She said. “I did not take into account what kind of memories this project might stir up in you.”

“No, that’s okay!” Icheb quickly assured her. “They aren’t all bad… the memories. I remember how hard you fought to keep me on Voyager. How you convinced the Captain to go back for me…” His voice trembled a little and then trailed off. 

Seven had to swallow a few times to keep her own emotions in check. She had already been on edge because of all the feelings that Kathryn had stirred up in her but now her protective feelings for Icheb were thrown into the mix.

“Thank you, Icheb.” She said in a hoarse voice. “Thank you _both_ for helping me with this.”

“Of course, Seven. Happy to.” B’Elanna quickly said and Seven focused on the Chief Engineer to regain some of her emotional stability. “We now know how important this is to you and let’s be honest it is a great research opportunity as well.”

“Yes it is!” Icheb cheerfully chimed in. “I actually wanted to ask if I can use this project as a case study for an assignment Starfleet Academy has giving me?”

“Of course.” Seven smiled back at him, relieved that the tension in the room seemed to have subsided. “Now… Shall we continue where we left off yesterday?”

They went back to work and Seven felt herself slowly ease back into her old self. Kathryn was still very much on her mind but like her girlfriend had said… there was nothing she could do right now. Maybe a visit to the strange green planet would help Kathryn sort through some of her emotions, much like the work helped Seven sort through her own.

Asking both B’Elanna and Icheb to work with her on the unit had been a good idea. Not only did she value B’Elanna for her Engineering knowledge but her fierce determination often caused her to have some very creative solutions to the problems they encountered. At the same time, Icheb always kept a clear head, even when Seven and B’Elanna would lock horns over some difficult issues. Together they made quite the team. 

They were making amazing strides and they had just decided to take a short break to go to the Mess Hall for lunch, joking about Neelix’s green food, when the doors of the lab opened up and Chakotay walked in.

Seven immediately worried that the First Officer was upset that they had spent so much of their time on creating this regeneration unit but then she noticed the look on his face. Only one thing could make him look like that. 

“Seven…” His voice was as tight as his facial expression. “Something has happened on the surface... We have lost contact with the Captain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. This wasn't exactly the Christmas gift I wanted to give you but I did not want to change the story line just to make it fit in with the seasonal cheer. ;) 
> 
> If you have the time and again if you don't hate me too much, let me know what you think.


	8. Forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all had a very nice Christmas and that you have forgiven me for that Grinch-like cliffhanger. ;) I went over all the previous chapters, to fix some mistakes and to change some minor things here and there that I wasn't happy with. Somehow that made finishing this chapter easier. Now without further ado, to the Bridge!

Seven’s fingers danced over the console on the Bridge, desperately trying out all the different variations of Federation communication channels even though she knew that the others must have tried them already.

When she had stormed onto the Bridge she had quickly pushed Harry Kim out of the way and claimed his spot at the communication station so she could try and locate the Captain. On the way there Chakotay had tried to explain to them what was going on but because much of it was still a mystery, the First Officer hadn’t been able to calm her down in the least. All she remembered was that they had lost contact with Kathryn and that they did not know where she was.

She was vaguely aware that the others were still talking, trying to find a solution together. She heard Tuvok explain what had happened to B’Elanna who had come with them to the Bridge and Chakotay was talking to the away team on the surface which they were still in contact with. All of the crew, except one. 

As none of their efforts seemed to be moving in a positive direction, Seven kept her eyes trained on her own screen.

“Don’t worry, Seven.” Harry said softly. “I’m sure the Captain is fine.”

Seven knew that the ensign was just trying to comfort her but she really didn’t have time to listen to him. She was running out of options to reach Kathryn’s combadge or locate her biosignature and every time one of her algorithms failed, her panic spiked.

“How did we not notice this… field before?” B’Elanna asked Tuvok and Seven quickly listened in, hoping to hear something useful.

“It seemed that the field wasn’t there before. It only appeared an hour ago.” Tuvok said.

“Do we have a location on its source yet?” Chakotay asked him.

“It seems that the field spread from the heart of the forest towards our mining operation.” Tuvok said as he showed B’Elanna and Chakotay a map on his console. 

“So it was meant as an attack towards our people working down there?” B’Elanna asked.

“That is one theory but I think it is too soon to draw any conclusions based on the data we have collected so far.” Tuvok said and for the first time Seven was irritated by the calm in his voice. Normally she really appreciated this about the Vulcan but now that her own emotions were running wild, she did not take comfort from it at all. 

“All we know for sure is that the field is made up of a substance we are not familiar with and that it blocks most of our communication signals and our transporter beams.” Tuvok continued.

“Any luck, Seven?” Chakotay turned to her at the mentioning of communication signals.

“Nothing.” Seven choked out. “There is nothing going through and nothing coming out.”

“What about the others on the planet?” B’Elanna asked. “Can they still contact each other?”

“Only the people who are closest to them.” Chakotay explained. “If they stray too far from each other the field blocks their signals too.”

“The Doctor to the Bridge.” The Doctor’s voice joined the chaos.

“Yes, Doctor?” Chakotay’s voice was calm but Seven wasn’t fooled. He was worried too.

“I have run some scans on the field as you asked but I can’t make much sense of it.” The Doctor told them. “It is unlike anything we have ever encountered and without any more data, I can’t say for sure that it is harmless. I therefore recommend that we pull everyone from the surface as quickly as possible.”

Seven’s hands froze. She was just rechecking some of the variations, a rather futile attempt that she did not want to give up somehow but now the fear that the others would give up on finding Kathryn forced her to look up at Chakotay.

At the Doctor’s words he had looked at her as well and Seven could see the weight of the decision push down on his shoulders.

“We can’t just abandon her.” Seven said and she instantly hated how her voice sounded.

“We are _not_ abandoning the Captain.” Chakotay assured her and anyone else listening in. “But we have to consider the safety of the others who are still on the planet. This field or whatever it is… it could be dangerous.”

“Then let me go down there.” Seven said, abandoning the station and taking a few steps closer to the First Officer. “You know that I can withstand more than anyone else when it comes to radiation or poisons.”

“Just to be clear… we don’t know what this field is.” The Doctor chimed in again and Seven briefly closed her eyes in irritation. “It might be radiation, it might be poisonous, it might be organic or something entirely new to us. We simply have no idea, so we also don’t know if you will be able to withstand more of it Seven.”

“I don’t care.” Seven said through gritted teeth. She wanted to say more but her panic was blinding her and she couldn’t find the words that would convince Chakotay to let her go down to the planet to search for Kathryn. 

He returned her pleading gaze for a few moments, contemplating her words but then he turned to Tuvok. “Transport all of our people back to the ship. Send them directly to Sick Bay so the Doctor can examine them. Tell them that they should stay together in pairs until they are all safely back on board.”

“They will have to move out to find a right spot for a transporter lock as the field is still spreading.” Tuvok told him. “It would mean abandoning the mine."

“We have no choice and tell them to hurry.” Chakotay said before turning back to the viewing screen to look at the seemingly peaceful planet.

“We can’t simply retreat!” Seven urged them on, looking around at their faces. “We don’t even know who put that field up! Have we done our scans for lifeforms again?”

“We have.” Harry told her. “But there aren’t any, except the ones of our crew… that we could find.”

“That field can’t just have appeared on itself.” Seven said stubbornly, ignoring the fact that they couldn’t find Kathryn’s biosignature. 

“Can’t we fire a warning shot at the place of origin?” Tom Paris chimed in from his position at the Helm.

“I would advice against that.” Tuvok quickly said. “First of all, we don’t know the exact point of origin. The area that I triangulated is still very vast. Second, us firing at the planet might cause an even more aggressive reaction if this field really is a defense mechanism. Third, as we do not know where the Captain currently is, firing at the surface could endanger her.”

Seven was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of despair, dizziness and nausea. She quickly gripped the railing that lined the Bridge to steady herself.

“Transporter Room One to the Bridge.” Lieutenant Ayala’s voice echoed through the room.

“Go ahead.” Chakotay said as he pinched his nose.

“We are having trouble pulling our people off the surface.” Ayala told them. “We need all power available and they need to keep moving away from the distortion field.”

Chakotay nodded at Harry and B’Elanna. Harry quickly relayed the message to the away team on the surface, telling them to keep moving, while B’Elanna diverted as much power as possible to the transporters. 

“If the field turns out to be harmless, we might still not be able to beam back down to the surface as it is still spreading. It might cover the whole planet soon.” Tuvok told everyone.

“Then we will take a shuttle down there.” Seven almost hissed in his direction. One way or the other, she was going to the surface to look for Kathryn. With or without permission…

Chakotay looked up at her as if he had heard her thoughts. Maybe he was afraid that she was going to march to the Shuttle Bay right now to commandeer a vessel. It would have been her first instinct a few years ago. But over time she had begun to realize that the crew could solve problems faster if they worked together. Something Kathryn had always told her…

Flashes from those conversations morphed into images of their last conversation in the Astrometrics Lab. Kathryn telling her that she did not know what was going on with her… That there was nothing Seven could do to help… The look on her face when she had left the lab…

Why hadn’t she stopped her? Why hadn’t she gone with her to the surface? Why had she told her that they needed time to think? Seven could feel the burn of tears in her eyes and she quickly strengthened her grip on the railing. Her ears picked up the slight squeak of the metal being crushed by her Borg hand but other than that all she could hear was her frantic heartbeat.

How could a heart still beat this fast when it was hurting so much? She should never have let Kathryn go back to the surface. She should have known that she would wander off alone again, thinking about those damned articles from Earth.

Suddenly her panic and fear were overshadowed with a surge of anger. It was their fault… Those people on Earth who had made Kathryn doubt everything. Doubt their relationship, doubt even herself… Their words had driven her into the forest of this damned planet and caused her to be in danger.

Seven vowed right there and then that if something were to happen to Kathryn, that she would find these journalists and make them pay… But first she would burn down all the trees on that disgusting green planet.

“Seven?” Harry’s voice seemed to come from far away even though he was now standing right next to her. “Seven… you need to let go of the railing.”

Seven blinked and then looked down at her hands. Her human hand had turned completely white and she was feeling a sharp pain… maybe she had pulled a muscle or broken a small bone. Her Borg hand looked exactly as it always did, except for the fact that it was curled around a dented piece of railing.

She quickly took a step back, breathing heavily as she stared at the dent she had left behind. Not unlike the dent she had left in Kathryn’s headboard on their first night together… That memory caused a fresh lance of fear and panic to pierce through the haze of her anger. Gasping she closed her eyes and backed further away until she was leaning against the door of the turbolift. 

“Seven, it’s going to be alright.” B’Elanna said as she quickly walked over to her. “Look at me.”

Seven opened her eyes and locked them with B’Elanna’s dark ones. 

“We never give up. You know that.” B’Elanna reminded her. “It’s like the Captain always says, we leave no one behind and especially not her.”

As she tried to breathe through her nose, Seven quickly looked around the room. Her feelings of embarrassment quickly faded away as she saw her crewmates look back at her, not only with sympathy in their eyes but also a characteristic Voyager look of determination. 

They were the crew that was going to return to Earth from the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant. They had survived so much, the Kazon, the Borg… They would not be stopped now. They were the crew of Voyager. They were the crew of Captain Kathryn Janeway.

Seven suddenly realized how ridiculous and unproductive her emotional response was. If Kathryn could see her now she would probably wonder what the hell she was doing. Kathryn always kept her calm after all, no matter what crisis they were facing. Now she had to do the same. 

“Thank you.” Seven quickly mumbled towards both B’Elanna and Harry.

They quickly returned their attention back to their consoles and before Seven could figure out what she could do to help out, Ayala’s voice stopped her. “Transporter Room One to the Bridge. All of the crew are back on board… Except for the Captain.”

“Thank you.” Chakotay softly acknowledged the message. “Doctor, keep them in quarantine for now and perform every possible test you can think of.”

“Permission to go to Sick Bay to help out?” Tom Paris quickly asked the First Officer.

“Of course.” Chakotay quickly granted his request. “I will join you so I can ask them some questions myself. Tuvok, you have the Bridge. Keep trying to contact and locate the Captain. B’Elanna... Seven, you’re with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time, let me know what you think!


	9. Ground

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! I hope 2021 will be a good year for all of us. Thank you all for making 2020 so magical for me and for reading this story. Live Long and Prosper!

Without waiting for instructions from Chakotay, Seven immediately marched into the Doctor’s office when they entered Sick Bay. 

The Doctor looked up from his screens and Seven hated the look of sympathy that crossed his face when he saw her. “Seven, I am so sorry. I’m sure the Captain is -”

“Doctor.” Seven interrupted him. She was in no mood for anyone to tell her how sorry they were. For all they knew, Kathryn could still be enjoying a walk through the forests of the planet without even realizing what had happened. Whatever that was. “What have you found out about the field?”

The Doctor quickly walked over to the screens on the walls and pulled up the results from his scans. “Nothing I’m afraid. This is something that we have never encountered before, I can’t make any sense of it.”

“There must be something you can tell me.” Seven urged him on impatiently, even the tiniest detail could be helpful here.

“Well I _can_ tell you that the field does not simply consist of energy, there is some sort of matter in there as well but for now I can’t even say if it is a solid, a gas or a liquid.” He sighed as he pulled up more test results.

Seven walked past his desk and went to work on the data herself, trying to figure out what they were dealing with. But whatever this matter was, the Doctor was right, it did not act like any substance she had ever encountered before. 

Thankfully the Doctor understood her need to work through the data by herself and he simply went back to his own work without disturbing her.

“Do you have anything?” Chakotay’s voice eventually broke the silence as he and B’Elanna walked into the office.

“Nothing so far.” The Doctor replied. “The away team can’t really make sense of it either nor do they show any abnormalities so far that would give us any clue to what we are dealing with. I will keep them here for observation just to be safe.”

“Do they know where the field came from?” Seven asked no one in particular as her fingers kept dancing across the screen. 

“No.” Chakotay answered her. “They first noticed the field when it was already moving towards them from the tree line. So all we know is that it came from the forest.”

“Of course the real question is why?” B’Elanna said. “If the field was meant as an attack, it did not do much damage.”

“Maybe it was meant as a warning signal.” The Doctor offered. “To scare us off.”

“You are still implying that this field was put up by some sentient being.” Chakotay countered. “Perhaps it is just a natural phenomenon on this planet.”

“Seems like too big of a coincidence for the field to appear just when the away team was drilling down into the ground _and_ for the field to move directly towards them.” Seven said as she turned around. “Whether the field was put up by beings we haven’t encountered yet or it was some sort of natural response of the planet, we can’t ignore the high probability that our presence caused it.”

A silence followed as they all thought that over. Seven thought it was pointless to discuss these things. It did not matter to her where the field came from or who put it up, as long as they would find Kathryn and get her back to Voyager. If she had to burn down the whole planet to do so, she would.

“I still want to go down there.” Seven told Chakotay, keeping her gaze and voice level.

“Seven, there are too many unknowns…” The Doctor began.

“ _You’re_ the First Officer.” Seven told Chakotay, ignoring the Doctor completely. “And you know as well as I do that we have to go down there to find the Captain.”

Chakotay did not say anything as he fixed his gaze on the data and maps on the screens. But Seven knew that it was a good sign that he hadn’t shot her down completely… yet.

“No one in the away team shows any change in their health.” Seven continued. “That means that the field might not be dangerous at all. It _does_ however block our efforts to find the Captain from here which means we have to go down there to fully understand what is going on.”

To her annoyance, Chakotay still did not say anything so Seven turned her gaze to B’Elanna for help. 

B’Elanna quickly nodded at her. “I agree with Seven, Chakotay. The best way to help the Captain is to go down there. Besides… this field might just be the start. What if there really are beings down there? The Captain might be hurt…”

Seven heart skipped a beat and her stomach twisted painfully. She knew B’Elanna was just trying to help her get to the surface but what if this worst case scenario was true… What if Kathryn was in danger?

Chakotay had turned around again and was now studying Seven. She knew that she could not show how much B’Elanna’s words had scared her. He would never let her go if he thought that she was an emotional wreck. So she quickly squared her shoulders and returned his gaze steadily. 

“Very well.” Chakotay sighed. “Make your preparations and make sure that you are prepared for whatever might come your way. B’Elanna does your support mean that you want to join her?”

“Yes.” B’Elanna said without hesitation. Seven quickly smiled at B’Elanna as she felt a strange elation rise up inside of her. They were going down to the surface. They were going to get Kathryn back. 

“Good, I will ask Tuvok to go with you two.” Chakotay said, reaching up for his combadge. 

But the soft voice of the Doctor stopped him. “Is this really what the Captain would want?” 

Seven’s head whipped around, ready to give him a piece of her mind but when she saw the genuine concerned look on his face she softened a little bit. Still, he was not going to ruin this for her. 

“The Captain is not here, Doctor.” Seven told him firmly.

“Doctor, I do understand your concerns.” Chakotay said with a bit more diplomacy. “But Seven _is_ right. I really don’t see another option. The Captain would always do anything she could to get a lost crewmember back and like B’Elanna said… she might be hurt.”

“I know. I was just trying to be the voice of reason. But I guess you are right…” The Doctor said as he rubbed his neck with one hand, then he suddenly straightened up. “I will go too.” 

“You want to come with us?” B’Elanna said surprised. 

“Yes.” The Doctor said. “If you really want to go down there, despite all the unknows, then I think it is best that I go with you as the ship’s EMH. Besides, when we find the Captain, she might need medical attention.”

“What if the field interferes with your mobile emitter?” Seven asked him.

“What if the field turns out to be poisonous?” He countered while raising his eyebrows. “You are willing to take on all the risks and so am I.”

Everyone looked back at Chakotay who looked a little overwhelmed. “I guess Mr. Paris can take care of the away team while you are gone…”

“He can.” The Doctor quickly assured him. “Especially considering that there is nothing wrong with them… at least not yet.”

“We will have to try out different forms of communication to break through the field.” Chakotay continued. “I want to stay in touch with you as long as possible and if anything goes wrong, either with your mobile emitter or with someone else, I want you _all_ to return to the ship immediately.”

B’Elanna and the Doctor quickly nodded but Seven simply looked back at the First Officer. He locked eyes with her as if waiting for her to tell him that she would come back if ordered. They stayed like that for several moments but then he looked away with a sigh.

Seven realized that he must know she would never come back without Kathryn and that he was probably already regretting giving her permission to go. 

“We should start our preparations.” Seven quickly said before he could cancel the mission. “I will go to the Cargo Bay and get any equipment we might need from there.”

“I will go to Engineering to get some communication devices.” B’Elanna said as she was walked over to the door.

“I will get some emergency supplies kits ready.” The Doctor told them.

“Good.” Seven said. “Let’s meet in the Shuttle Bay as quickly as possible.”

“I will tell Tuvok to join you there and we will do a quick briefing _before_ you leave.” Chakotay ordered, taking back some of his authority. “Do you understand, Seven?”

Seven felt a little annoyed that he singled her out, especially because B’Elanna was already half out the door. But she knew that they all thought she was going to be the wildcard in this mission. And they were probably right.

“Yes, Commander.” She said obediently. “I understand.”

Then she quickly turned around and walked to the Cargo Bay as fast as she could. Her mind was already making lists of equipment that they would need, anything that could be useful for a rescue mission on a strange planet.

But her heart was doing something completely different. It felt like with every beat it was trying to reach out to Kathryn, to tell her that she was coming. _I’m coming. I’ll find you and get you back._

_Several hours before…_

Kathryn felt annoyed with herself as she walked through the trees she had come to love. She knew it was rather rash of her to go back into the forest by herself but somehow it drew her in. As if the trees were offering her comfort from all the confusing thoughts that were running through her mind.

This time though, she had taken some equipment with her. That way she at least gave her crew the idea that she was going in there to do some research. It might also help her to get her mind back in order. She was a scientist by training after all and that meant she loved cataloguing and ordering data. 

Brushing aside the underbrush, revealing more and more of the forest, it almost felt like she was coming back home. As if these forests had become familiar to her in a way that the forests back on Earth were. As she pondered that, a part of her mind flitted back to the forest she and Seven had enjoyed on the Holodeck… 

Of course that hadn’t been a real forest with real living trees and plants but still… the experience had been so good. It had really helped their relationship blossom in a way. Their walk through the forest and then their swim in the pool with the waterfall… it had all been very magical. 

Lost in her memories she didn’t really pay attention to where she was going but suddenly she came across the flower she had seen on her first day on the planet. She quickly scanned it again and looked up the data in her tricorder. The crew on Voyager had analyzed it and they hadn’t found any known toxics on it. 

Kathryn kneeled down next to the flower and studied it as sunlight filtered through the leaves above her head and made the blue colors of the petals dance in front of her eyes. 

She did not understand why but flowers always made her think of Seven. To be fair, almost anything made her think of Seven these days…

With a sigh she gently reached out her hand and traced her fingers across the soft leaves and petals of the flower. 

Memories of a different night resurfaced. It had been shortly after Seven had started using her lotion and had begun wearing clothes. She had then replicated her first set of lingerie as a surprise for Kathryn… 

The images of Seven’s soft skin, her lingerie and the blue of the flower blended together in Kathryn mind eye. The soft feel of the petal made her remember how there had been rose petals on the bed that night…

A yearning to get back to Seven suddenly overtook her and she quickly scrambled back to her feet. It was ridiculous that she was down here while she should be talking to Seven, making her see that everything was okay. That she was sorry and that she wouldn’t let those articles from Earth get to her again. 

If Seven did not have a problem with her being her Captain and being older, then she shouldn’t have any problems with it either. All she should do was be grateful that this woman wanted to share her life with her. Grateful that they had found each other.

Taking a deep breath, Kathryn reached up her hand to her combadge to request a beam up but then hesitated. She looked back down at the flower and then made the decision to take it with her. As gently as she could she plucked it by breaking its stem. 

Smiling she twirled the flower around in her fingers. It would be a nice peace-offering for Seven. 

A sudden rumbling startled her as the ground shook violently. On instinct she quickly looked around but then her thoughts went straight back to her crew working the mining site. Something must have happened there. She turned around to run back but then she stopped dead in her tracks. The sound hadn't come from the direction of the site. It had come from the depths of the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My last cliffhanger of this year. ;) If you have the time, let me know what you think.


	10. Plants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again a very Happy New Year to all of you and thank you for reading this story! 
> 
> By posting this chapter the word count of the series has crossed the magical 200.000 mark. I still can't believe that I am still writing this series and that it only became more and more fun to do so. Thank you all so much for helping me and for inspiring me. Couldn't and wouldn't have done this without you.
> 
> Now let's head down to the planet to look for the Captain!

Flying the shuttle into the planet’s atmosphere had been easy. The field did not interact with it at all and Seven felt frustrated that Tuvok had taken the shuttle all the way around the field, which was still expanding, before beginning their descent. 

She felt every passing second like a sharp throb of pain in her head, knowing that Kathryn could still be in danger. But the Vulcan Lieutenant Commander did not want to take any unnecessary risks. He and Chakotay had come up with a plan for the rescue while the others had been getting the equipment together. Part of that plan had been the appointment of Tuvok as team leader and Chakotay had made Seven promise that she would follow his orders.

The away team from the mining site had pinpointed the location where the Captain had entered the forest so they would move out from there. Of course they did not know which direction Kathryn had set off to after that. Meaning that the farther away they got from that point, the less likely it would be that they would simply run into her.

Still they hoped that they could scan for residual heat signatures and other traces left behind by the Captain. Since there were no animals on this planet, at least not in the conventional way that they could scan for, all the biological traces picked up by their scanners should point to Kathryn.

As the mining site came into view, Seven strained her neck to look out the window. She had hoped that Kathryn would be there, waiting for them to pick her up. That she had come back to the site the minute she had realized that something was wrong with her combadge. That would be the logical thing to do, something Kathryn would surely do if she was able to.

But the mining site was abandoned. All that remained was the equipment of the away team. Disappointed Seven leaned back in her chair as Tuvok landed the shuttle next to the site. She took in some deep breaths to try and calm her emotions but then quickly sprung up so she could be the first one out the door.

The eerie silence of the planet pressed in on Seven’s ears as she strained to hear any sounds that might indicate Kathryn’s location.

But everything looked and sounded just as the away team had described it, quiet and… green. Even the field that now covered the sky above their heads had a strange greenish glittering glow to it. Seven felt a strange claustrophobic feeling come over her as she gazed at all that green pressing in on them from all sides.

The Doctor immediately started to scan the field and the others, eager to keep an eye out for any change in their health. Tuvok had started moving all of the gear they wanted to take with them out of the shuttle and Seven quickly turned back to help him.

Meanwhile, B’Elanna tried to keep up their communication with Voyager. They had decided to use some old radio waves to communicate as Engineering had deemed them most suitable to make it through the field. It wasn’t as effective as their combadges and they quickly found out that there was quite a lag in the exchange of messages but it was better than nothing.

Seven was worried that the lag might be enough reason for Chakotay and Tuvok to cancel the mission and to order them back to the ship. But thankfully they didn’t, they were both eager to find their Captain and friend.

Perhaps it was the quiet of the planet itself but they did not speak much to each other except for some short sentences while they were distributing the gear amongst themselves. Seven was glad for the lack of conversation, they needed to stay focused and get moving. To make sure that they would move quickly, she took most of the equipment herself because she knew the weight would burden her less than it would Tuvok and B’Elanna.

However, she still had to wait for Tuvok to give the order to move out and he only set out in the direction of the forest when he was convinced that the shuttle was secured or at least as safe as it could be in this strange environment.

“We’ll find her, Seven.” B’Elanna told her once again while Seven tapped her foot impatiently. “We have a plan now.”

Seven simply nodded at her, not trusting her own voice right now. Thankfully Tuvok gave the order to move out shortly after that. 

When they finally made it to the tree line, Seven took out a machete to clear out a path for them to follow so that they could move thought the forest at a fast pace but Tuvok immediately stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“That would be unwise, Seven.” He said in his usual calm voice. “We do not want to anger the planet or whoever set out that field any further. We also don’t want to alert them of our presence just yet.”

Seven had to bite her tongue to keep her frustration to herself but she did put the knife away. She had voted against this careful approach back on Voyager but the others had quickly agreed with Tuvok and Chakotay. So there was nothing for her to do but to carefully follow Tuvok through the underbrush while repressing her instincts to hurt the forest in retribution for hiding Kathryn.

After only a few paces, Tuvok stopped again and Seven almost bumped right into him. “The scans are not picking up any residual heat.” He said and Seven’s heart sank a little. One of the few methods they had for finding Kathryn was failing already. 

“However,” Tuvok continued. “Some of these branches and plants are slightly damaged which could indicate footsteps. Of course there is no way to know if they are the Captain’s nor if they are from her most recent walk into the forest or the previous ones.”

Seven briefly closed her eyes at his ironclad reasoning. She knew he was right but the way he kept listing the diminishing possibilities of finding Kathryn was causing her emotions to fly high.

“Let’s just assume that they _are_ the Captain’s footsteps.” The Doctor said optimistically from behind them. “It’s important to stay positive. We can’t lose hope.”

“Of course.” Tuvok said and then he finally continued moving. “Let’s try to move as carefully as we can in case we have to track back and try a different path. That way we can eliminate our own footsteps. Lieutenant Torres, is the tracking of our location registering?”

“Yes, so far it’s working.” B’Elanna said who was the last in their line and who monitored their movement through the forest on a map on her tricorder.

“Good. Let Voyager know that we have entered the forest.” Tuvok ordered her. 

After B’Elanna had relayed the message and Voyager had answered, all was quiet again. 

Seven wanted to scream in frustration at the slow pace that they were going. She also wanted to shout out for Kathryn. Maybe the quiet of the forest would carry their voices and alert her of their presence. But the strategy for now was to keep quiet so as not to alert the planet or any beings of their presence.

As Seven brushed aside some branches, she again doubted their approach. It might be her imagination running wild but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the forest already knew that they were there…

After about two hours, in which they had to go back a couple of times to find traces of Kathryn’s path again, Tuvok stopped in a clearing. Seven secretly hoped that he would come to his senses and change their strategy but he only stooped down to examine a plant. 

“What is it?” Seven asked him. She forgot to address him by his rank but her nerves were strung too tight to follow protocol.

“There is some faint residual heat on the ground near this plant.” He said. “It seems that something was broken off here too, as if it was harvested by someone.”

“How can we know that that was the Captain?” B’Elanna asked as she entered the small clearing as well. “Neelix harvested quite a few plants and gross fruits when he was down here.”

“Mr. Neelix never went in this direction.” Tuvok said in his calm voice.

Seven couldn’t stop the soaring feeling of hope rising up inside of her. “Then it must have been her.”

No one replied and she knew that she was being uncharacteristically optimistic but she couldn’t explain it. Somehow she _knew_ that Kathryn had been here and that she had broken the stem of whatever plant that was. 

“This plant and its flowers were added to our database a few days ago.” The Doctor said as he scanned it. “By the Captain.”

That settled it. Seven was sure that Kathryn must have come across the plant, recognized it and then had picked the flower, knowing that it was now safe to do so. At least safe because she knew the plant wasn’t poisonous… 

Seven turned around in a circle, trying to see anything that might indicate where Kathryn had gone next or any signs that someone had attacked her but there was nothing to see. Her eyes flew over branches and leaves but they saw nothing. 

B’Elanna came up beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder in a reassuring way before she scanned the clearing with her equipment. “The heat residue continues over there.”

Tuvok and the Doctor joined them as they all looked in the direction B’Elanna was pointing at. Without speaking another word, letting the quiet of the forest envelop them again, they reformed their line and pushed on.

They moved a little quicker now that they had a clear trail to follow and Seven’s heartbeat was rising rapidly. Still she had to contain her frustration because they were still not going as fast as she would like. To distract herself she tried to scan as much as possible, to find any clue that they were actually moving in the right direction.

“Over here.” Tuvok suddenly said, startling Seven out of her concentration. A sharp spike of hope had sparked inside of her at his words but his tone immediately worried her. 

Then her eyes noticed how he was pointing down at a piece of fabric stuck to a thorn on a brush. 

Seven pushed past him, no longer caring if she hurt any of the plants around them. She knelt down and plucked the fabric from the thorn it was lodged to. It was part of a Starfleet Uniform, there was no doubt about it. She also did not need to scan it to know that it was Kathryn’s. 

The Doctor knelt down next to her and scanned the piece of fabric in her hand. “There are small traces of blood on it…” 

Seven felt dizzy but quickly straightened back up. She took a deep breath, ready to shout out Kathryn’s name but again she was stopped by Tuvok’s hand on her arm.

“Seven, we still have to be careful.” He said but she didn’t want to hear him.

“She could’ve just torn her trousers on the thorns.” B’Elanna quickly interjected. “Maybe she just scratched herself.”

That did calm Seven down a little but she was no longer happy with the slow pace they were going at. 

Without waiting for Tuvok to take the lead, she pushed through the dense brushes to follow the trail that Kathryn had left behind for her scanners to pick up.

She did not wait to make sure that the others were following her as she clenched the small piece of fabric in her fist. 

Staring at her screens, she did not notice the way the damage to the plants ahead of her seemed to become more intense. She just pushed on until she quite suddenly came to another clearing. 

That’s when she stopped dead in her tracks. 

“What in the world…” B’Elanna’s voice rang out across the clearing as she caught up with her but Seven could only stare as she felt her heart sink.

In front of them the ground was completely torn up. The mining site sprung to mind but even their machines hadn’t caused this much damage to the soil. There were long furrows in the grass as if something big had rented the earth open. The grooves stopped right in front of their feet and they all seemed to have come from one direction. 

Swallowing back her nausea and not waiting for the others to finish their scans, Seven jumped into the nearest furrow and started running.

“Seven, wait!” She heard the others call out after her but she did not turn around to see if they were following her.

Her panic blurred her vision as her heart beat hard in her chest. This was so much worse than she had imagined. She did not care anymore if the planet or any of the beings found out about her presence. She _wanted_ them to find her, she had some questions for them...

“Kathryn!” She shouted out ahead of her, her feet pushing through the loose soil. “Kathryn! Where are you?!”

A loud crash from the right shook the ground and made her fall down. 

She landed on the soft soil and was disoriented for only a split second before she spun around. Letting go of her scanner she scrambled to get back to her feet and to release her phaser from the strap around her waist. 

As she crouched down, pointing the phaser up in the general direction of the sound, she froze as a giant tree made its way towards her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time, let me know what you think...
> 
> Before anyone asks, this story is (slightly) inspired by the Ents from the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, one of my all time favorite authors.


	11. Trees

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and for your patience! Enjoy this next chapter.

Seven was frozen for only two seconds. Then her mind screamed at her that it did not matter that it was a giant _tree_ who was charging at her. It was still a hostile and she had to defend herself. 

She took aim and fired her phaser. 

The beam hit the trunk of the tree and it came to a shuddering stop. As if in surprise, it raised two of its branches and covered the spot on its bark where the light had touched it. 

As far as Seven could see, before the leaves covered up the spot, there had been no visible damage. Her phaser had been set to stun as was protocol. 

The tree’s hesitation meant that she had a little time to think over her options. She could run back to the others and regroup. Which would mean follow Tuvok’s orders and most probably retreat. Or she could take advantage of the tree’s confusion and go around it so she could continue on her quest to find Kathryn. Or she could fire again but this time with a different setting…

That last option made her think about where she should fire her next shot but the tree had no face or any other indicators that would give away a weak spot. It looked just like an ordinary tree. Except that its leaves had a bluish color and of course the fact that it moved and walked…

“Seven!” In the distance she could hear someone shout her name and she realized her time was running out.

Just before the tree dropped its branches again, she dashed forward. She wasn’t going to wait and see if it would continue its charge or if it would retreat. She couldn’t risk losing this opportunity. 

Keeping her eyes on the many branches of the tree she ran through a furrow in the ground right next to it.

For a creature (or plant…) its seize, it moved remarkedly fast and Seven had to duck when a rather large branch swung her way. Sliding through the earth, she managed to avoid it but before she could get back on her feet a much smaller branch whipped out in her direction.

The thorns on the branch cut through her uniform as if it was nothing and she could feel her skin tear along with it. Thankfully the thorns did not stick and she could keep running with gritted teeth. 

Even though the tree did not seem to have any eyes, it did apparently have a front as it was now turning around to keep following her. The ground at Seven’s feet moved like a roaring sea as the roots of the tree dug around in it and she needed all of her concentration to place her feet. 

She broke her concentration on instinct to glance over her shoulder just in time to see a vine lash out towards her. She caught it in her Borg hand and squeezed. Without much difficulty the tip of the vine simply snapped off. 

The following sound coming from the tree was deafening and for a short moment, Seven felt a strange sense of guilt for hurting it. But that guilt quickly abated as she felt her own blood run down her side and the thought of Kathryn being held captive by these beings resurfaced in her mind. 

She continued to run but the tree was only distracted for a little while. It kept going after her and the unstable ground underneath her feet was slowing her down. 

She was aiming for the nearest tree line, just next to the spot where the furrows entered the forest but she knew that she was never going to make it. A strange thought entered her mind that to the tree she must look like a puny insect, something that would be easily squashed.

Grunts from the tree made her look around again and she saw that the others had opened fire, probably in an attempt to distract it from attacking her. She felt gratitude towards her crewmates but also guilt because she wasn’t going back to them.

She knew she was being selfish but she couldn’t help it. Kathryn was all that mattered and all she could think about as she dashed into the forest without looking back at the tree or the other members of the rescue team.

After running as fast and as long as she could, she finally had to slow down and then stop, collapsing to the ground on her knees. All she could hear were her own panting breaths as she tried to listen for signs that the tree or the others had followed her. But everything was quiet again which did not necessarily ease her mind.

She had moved in closer to the furrows that ran through the forest floor but there was no sign of any other trees coming her way. Still, she wanted to stay close to their path because she still believed that they would lead her to Kathryn. If only she could be sure of that and of whether or not she was going in the right direction…

Looking down at her side, she gently pulled back the tattered edges of her uniform. The gashes weren’t very deep but they were still bleeding and the cuts weren’t clean. 

With a sigh she took off her backpack. Those thorns might have been poisonous and if not, she still did not want the wounds to get infected. She had no choice, she had to treat the wound before she could go on.

Just as she had taken out the emergency medical kit from her bag, her ears picked up a sound. She held her breath as it drew nearer. It was definitely another one of those tree creatures or maybe the same one as the sound came from the direction she had come from herself. 

Quickly she put the med kit back in the bag and slung it on her back. Then she dived into some bushes close to the furrow and waited.

The sound intensified until it was a roaring in her ears. The tree, she assumed it was the same one, was making its way back into the forest. It used the furrow in the ground like a road as its roots dug their way through the earth at a surprising speed.

Slowly, Seven raised her head to see better but there was no sign of her crewmates. At least the tree had not taken them captive and she could not think about what else it might have done with them… 

Hopefully Tuvok had made the only logical decision: to abandon her and retreat.

As the tree passed her only a few feet of her hiding place, she was once again astonished by how big it was. She knew she would never win in a fight and there might even be more of them. Perhaps all of the trees in this forest could wake up and become like that…

That last thought made her skin crawl and she had to force herself to stay down until the tree had moved out of sight and almost out of hearing range. Only then did she get back to her feet and quickly spun around in a circle. But all of the plants and trees surrounding her looked as dormant as they should be. Apparently they also hadn’t alerted the tree to her presence there, so that was encouraging. 

The fact that the tree was moving in the same direction as she had been, was encouraging as well. She could only imagine that it would go back to its base, or whatever these trees lived in.

That made up her mind. Her wounds would have to wait. She could not miss the opportunity to follow the tree. As quietly as she could she stepped back into the furrow and started following the tree’s retreating sounds.

_I won’t be able to keep this up._ She thought after almost an hour had passed. _I should have gone back to the others._

She was sweating a lot and her mouth felt parched but she could not afford to stop and take a sip of water from the bottles in her bag. 

The tree was moving fast and she could only keep up with it by running. At first she had been reluctant to do so because she didn’t want to make too much noise. But the fear of losing her prey finally outweighed her caution.

At first she had thought she could simply follow the furrow without even listening for the tree but then more and more furrows had appeared. Some were old, there were plants and even small trees growing in them again. But others were fresh, with loose soil like the one she was following. More importantly they did not all go in the same direction. 

The stupidity of her actions dawned on her as her mind was trying to tell her to stop and go back. She was following a _tree_ into a _forest_ for crying out loud! But her heart screamed at her with every beat that she had to push on. She _had_ to find Kathryn.

Of course she still didn’t know that she would actually find Kathryn by following this tree. Maybe they weren’t social beings, so maybe they did not live together. Kathryn could be held prisoner or worse by other trees or even other beings that their scans had overlooked just as they had overlooked these trees.

One thing that did encourage her still was the fact that the field in the sky seemed to darken in the direction she was going to. From time to time the canopy of leaves would open up and she could see the field glittering above her. Of course it could simply be darkening for other reasons, it might be almost nightfall on this side of the planet. But her heart told her that it was a good sign. 

Being distracted by the constant debate going on inside her head and her own wheezing breathing, she almost didn’t notice the sounds of the tree becoming louder. Only when she heard another loud crash did she stop.

Putting her hands on her knees, she desperately held in her breath for a few seconds to hear better but there was no doubt about it. Up ahead the tree had stopped and it was not alone…

Seven hoped that the beating of her heart wasn’t loud enough for these tree creatures to hear. Then again, they might not even possess the sense of hearing. But then again, they might.

Not wanting to take any risks, she had left the furrow and gone back into the brushes and trees surrounding it. Slowly and carefully she edged closer to the strange sounds. It sounded like there were more than one of the trees there. There was a certain give and take to the sounds, almost as if it was a conversation. 

Eventually, her hideout of brushes thinned and she had to crawl forward on her stomach while trying to ignore the pain of her wound as it scraped the forest floor. 

She almost gasped at seeing the giant clearing in front of her open up. It was very beautiful as it was lit up by a strange golden light that seemed to come from the plants and the ground itself. There were some sort of structures in the middle of the clearing too but she could not identify their function as she was completely focused on the trees. 

There were four tree creatures in the clearing. Two of them were moving their branches as if they were gesturing to each other. Most of the sounds were coming from them. The other two were not standing still either but they were simply swaying back and forth. A low humming came from them from time to time.

Stunned Seven’s mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing. She was sure even the Collective hadn’t encountered beings and a place like this. 

Finally her eyes moved past the trees and looked around the clearing. The structures were very intriguing and they seemed to channel the light from the ground up into the air, probably fueling the field in some way…

If she could just destroy them somehow… That might make the field disappear. She could then contact Voyager again and they could find Kathryn…

As if her name had moved her eyes subconsciously in the right direction, Seven suddenly saw her. 

A shock went through her and she had to dig her Borg hand into the brushes to keep still as she tried to make sure that her eyes weren’t deceiving her. But there she was. Kathryn. Sitting on the edge of one of the structures, looking fine as far as Seven could tell from the distance.

Her heartbeat intensified even more but so did the sounds of the two talking trees. As if their argument was reaching a sudden peak. 

Then suddenly one of the swaying trees let out a loud groan and the other two went silent instantly. Seven bit her bottom lip to keep from making any sounds as the sudden silence rang in her ears. 

The tree that had made the final sound turned around and started moving towards the structures and Kathryn. As Seven watched, the tree shot out long vines from its branches, vines that started to circle Kathryn’s wrists and ankles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time, please let me know what you think of this chapter as it was rather different and more difficult to write than others. Thank you.


	12. Vines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and for your patience!

All thought of sneaking around and trying to be careful left Seven as she watched the tree bind Kathryn’s wrists and ankles together with its vines. Instead, her mind slipped into a very primal and instinctual setting. All she could think about was attacking.

Somewhere a small voice inside her head told her that this was exactly how she had acted as a Borg Drone. Whenever there had been a threat to the Collective, the drones would thrown themselves into danger to defend the Hive, without any thought for their own wellbeing nor strategy. All that mattered was eliminating the threat as quickly as possible.

Now she was doing the same thing and one word surfaced through all the panic, anger and fear. _Fire_. She had to create fire in some way, that would surely frighten these trees and plants around her.

She jumped to her feet and released her phaser from its strap. She quickly changed the setting and shot a beam at a piece of wood at her feet. She had no idea if it would work. The walking tree hadn’t been hurt by the stun setting of her phaser at all. But apparently this wooden stick was of the normal kind and it first started to smoke before small flames appeared.

Not waiting for it to catch fire completely, Seven quickly grabbed it and dashed forward. In those short seconds, she had made enough sounds for two of the trees to move her way. However, they didn’t attack her yet. Maybe they were just surprised at her sudden appearance. 

“Kathryn!” Seven shouted in the general direction of where her girlfriend had been because she could no longer see her as the trees blocked her view.

In the few heartbeats of silence that followed, she imagined all kinds of things. Kathryn too weak to answer. Kathryn bleeding and desperately trying to find her with her eyes. The vines of the tree wrapping itself around Kathryn’s neck as she tried to shout something back.

“Seven?” Kathryn’s voice hit her like a blow to the chest but after the first wave of relief, it only roused the fire burning inside her. Her girlfriend didn’t sound hurt nor afraid but mostly just surprised. Still, that didn’t mean that these trees hadn’t hurt her.

Seven quickly shifted her focus back to the trees that were blocking her path. The one closest to her looked like the tree she had followed into the clearing. She noticed that its leaves had that same blueish hue to them as it reached out a branch to her and started to unroll some of its own vines. 

But Seven was not going to wait for it to finish. She waved the lit stick in front of it as she kept running in the direction that Kathryn’s voice had come from. 

Thankfully the fire had the effect she had hoped for. The tree backed away from her as it let out a warning roar to its friends. The sound was unlike anything she had heard so far and there was definitely fear in it. 

The other trees, except for the one holding Kathryn, immediately advanced as they stood next to the one she had just threatened with the fire. They completely blocked her path, so Seven had to stop running and consider her options. Waving the stick in front of them would only get her that far. If they attacked her all at once, from multiple sides, they would have no trouble taking her out. She had to show them that she was serious.

The trees seemed to hesitate as well. Maybe they wanted to see what she was going to do next or maybe they were trying to figure out their own next move. Either way, it was Seven who took the next step forward.

She had chosen the middle tree as her target and advanced with her stick and phaser at the ready.

“Seven, stop!” Kathryn suddenly shouted at her, freezing her in her tracks.

Confused Seven looked up because the sound of Kathryn’s voice had come from a much higher point than she had expected. 

Looking up she saw that Kathryn was now suspended close to the top of the trunk of the tree holding her. With some relief, Seven saw that the vines had only encircled Kathryn’s arms and legs, almost like a harness keeping her up. There was no sign of thorns as the tree simply cradled the Captain in its branches which were lined with dark green leaves that pulsed softly with the light from the clearing.

But she was still quite far away and Seven wished she could make out the expression on Kathryn’s face. Had she told her to stop because she was being threatened by the tree? Was there a hidden thorn pointed at her neck? “Kathryn?”

“Don’t hurt them!” Kathryn said. 

“What do you mean?!” Seven roared back at her, still filled with an angry energy as she flitted her eyes back and forth between Kathryn and the three trees in front of her. One move from them and she would unleash her fire, both from her stick and her phaser which was now set on its highest setting.

“I don’t think they are dangerous!” Kathryn said.

“They are keeping you captive!” Seven reminded her impatiently. 

She couldn’t understand what her girlfriend was talking about. Maybe she had lost her mind being alone in the forest with these trees… Or maybe they had given her something to eat or drink that would make her more docile…

“This is First Contact, Seven!” Kathryn simply replied.

“Are you joking?!” Seven shouted back. How could Kathryn still be thinking about stupid Starfleet regulations in a situation like this? 

Perhaps it was the obvious anger in her voice or perhaps the tree was getting tired of their conversation but the one with the blue leaves, the one she had been threatening with the fire, had had enough.

It suddenly lashed out a thick vine with thorns in her direction, aimed at her hand holding the fire. 

Without hesitation Seven swiped the branch away with her stick. She also raised her phaser at it but Kathryn’s words still echoed in her head, somehow causing her not to take the shot. 

She didn’t need to. The fire seemed to be enough.

The tree roared as flames leapt across its branches. The sound was so deafening that Seven almost dropped her stick and phaser to cover her ears. But instead she just gritted her teeth as she watched in amazement while the flames changed color and burned across the branches towards the trunk of the tree. 

On her stick the flames had had a normal orange/yellow color. But as the flames made their way across the tree’s bark, there was a dazzling spectrum of all colors imaginable with a lot of blues and greens. It was quite a magical sight if it wasn’t for the fact that they were still in danger.

Complete chaos broke out. As the burning tree backed away from her, its roots tore the ground at her feet violently and she quickly had to jump back so she wouldn’t fall. The other two trees did not back away from their burning friend but instead tried to help it out. They reached out their own branches, unafraid of the fire as they helped the burning tree back away from her.

Suddenly terrified, Seven quickly looked back at the tall tree holding Kathryn. It hadn’t moved as much as the others but it was clearly in distress. Perhaps her attack, even though it had been a move out of defense, would be enough for the tree to snap Kathryn’s neck…

She had to act fast. Use the confusion around her. Jumping through the earth that was now flung in every direction by the retreating trees, Seven advanced on the leader tree, holding her burning stick up high.

“Let her go!” Seven shouted at it. She knew it was probably pointless. The universal translators in their combadges hadn’t been able to make any sense of the trees’ roars so they probably also didn’t understand them. 

But then again, you didn’t always need to understand a language to know what someone was saying to you.

Without looking back at the three trees who were trying to deal with the fire, Seven advanced on the tree holding her girlfriend and captain captive. 

“Let. Her. Go.” She said as she pointed her fiery stick at Kathryn to make her point come across.

Before the tree could respond, however, Seven felt vines with thorns wrap themselves around her legs. She tried to quickly turn around but before she could see what was going on, she was pulled backwards with a harsh pull. 

“Seven!” Kathryn’s voice was almost drowned out by the angry sounds of the trees but Seven could still hear it as she flung out her arms to catch herself, losing the stick as she did so.

Crashing to the ground she twisted around and saw that one of the trees had attacked her while her back was turned to them. It pulled her closer through the loose soil, ready to do whatever it wanted with her. 

She tried to raise her arms as she still had her phaser ready in her Borg hand. But the tree wasn’t a fool as it lashed out more thorny vines and bound her arms with them. She was surprised at the strength in them as she tried to rip herself free, desperately moving her phaser in her hand so she could take the shot.

Before she could take aim however, the tree holding Kathryn gave another loud roar and once again all the others froze.

Panting, she came to a stop in the dirt. She quickly turned her head to look back at the leader tree. It was still holding Kathryn safely away from all the turmoil. It actually looked like it hadn’t moved at all.

Seven tried to pull herself free from the vines but all that did was lodge the thorns deeper into her flesh. She couldn’t stop the small whimper that escaped her lips and because the clearing had become eerily silent again, it sounded a lot louder than she had wanted it to. 

“Seven!” Kathryn shouted again and then turned to talk to the tree holding her. “Please! I don’t know if you understand us… But please, just let us go! We mean you no harm!”

Maybe it did understand her or maybe it simply thought that there had been enough violence. Whatever the reason, the vines holding Kathryn up slowly came undone as she was lowered to the ground. 

Seven watched in amazement while relief filled her with a strange sense of hope. Maybe they would get out of there after all. Or maybe at least Kathryn would.

But the tree holding her down apparently did not agree with its leader. It gave an indignant roar as it pointed a branch back at the tree that she had set on fire only moments before.

Seven looked back as well. The flames were gone and the tree looked quite alright despite the scorch marks that ran up its branches. All in all it hadn’t been damaged as much as she had actually hoped. 

It was standing next to one of the structures, a sort of basin which was filled with water. So apparently they had had a defense to her weapon… Seven’s heart sunk a little but then she tightened her hold on her phaser as she tried to point it at the tree holding her. 

It was still gesturing and pointing at the leader tree and Seven could feel its thorns digging into her flesh with each roar. But she couldn’t really focus on that as she suddenly realized that Kathryn was now safely back on her feet and… moving towards her. 

“Kathryn…” Seven said even though she knew that her voice would probably not carry above the heated conversation between the two trees. “Kathryn, no. Run! Just get out of here!”

But the Captain made no move to get to safety as she simply climbed through the furrows in the ground towards Seven.

Then the angry tree noticed the other human making her way towards it. With a growling roar it unrolled another thorny vine.

“No!” Seven shouted at it even though she knew that there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was too strong and it had a firm grip on all of her limbs. Maybe if she just fired her phaser at a random point, it might stop but then again… she might hit Kathryn.

However, before the thorny vine could wrap itself around her girlfriend, the leader tree let out another loud roar and finally moved into the fray. With superior speed it moved closer and lashed out its own vines. Instead of wrapping them around Kathryn again, as Seven had expected, they wrapped around the vines of the other tree. 

It let out an indignant sound but the leader tree did not let go. As a response the angry tree tightened its hold on Seven and she had to close her eyes at the pain. But then they flew open again as she felt Kathryn’s warm fingers touch her face.

“Seven! Oh Seven.” Kathryn said as her face came into view. 

Seven couldn’t help but smile up at her. Even though they were still in danger and Kathryn looked a little worse for wear, she was still the most beautiful thing Seven had ever seen. There were tears in her gray eyes and smudges of dirt on her skin but at least there were no serious scratches, no blood.

“Kathryn.” Seven said with a sigh. “You have to get out of here.”

“I am _not_ leaving you.” Kathryn said almost angry as her other hand touched the thorny vines that encircled Seven’s left arm. But Seven knew that if she wasn’t strong enough to break herself free, there was nothing Kathryn could do.

“The phaser…” Seven said, trying to twist her hand so that Kathryn could reach the weapon.

For a moment she was afraid that Kathryn would refuse, that she would start a speech about First Contact and the Prime Directive. But there was a very determined look in Kathryn’s eyes now as her fingers took hold of the weapon without hesitation.

All Seven could do was lie as still as possible as Kathryn rose back up and pointed the phaser at the tree. 

Seven knew it was stupid, with all the danger around them, but she thought that in that moment Kathryn looked utterly magnificent. 

She was standing guard next to her in her uniform, her hair sparking like fire as it was touched by the strange light of the clearing. The same light made her face look fierce as the Captain was now the one who threatened the tree. “Let her go! Now!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yes, we are not out of the woods yet... Worst pun ever! ;) But someone had to do it.  
> If you have the time, let me know what you think!


	13. Thorns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Let's check in with the Captain and hear her side of things!

Kathryn tried with all her might to keep her arm steady as she pointed the phaser at the tree. But her head was still spinning from all the events of the past day. 

After hearing the strange sound in the forest the first time, everything had happened in such a blur. She had immediately tried to contact Voyager and when that had failed she had hailed the away team without success. She had been frozen in indecision for a while, trying to figure out if she should investigate the sound on her own or go back to her crew.

In hindsight it seemed like such an easy decision, she should have gone back. But her curiosity got the better of her and she had gone deeper into the forest to find out what the sound was. 

Because in her mind it could only be someone from Voyager. They had scanned the entire planet and to their knowledge there were no other animals or beings on the planet. 

Maybe Neelix had come back to harvest more plants and had had some sort of accident? Or maybe the Engineering Department had opened up a second mining site without her knowing?

The sounds had become louder and her curiosity had given way to genuine concern. She had moved faster and in hindsight had made way too much noise. She had ripped her pants when she had tried to get through some bushes as she knew she was getting closer to the source of the sounds and the shaking of the ground.

When she had come face to face with the trees, she had had trouble believing what she was seeing. This was not at all what she had expected and she was immediately thrown by their beauty and strength. They were awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time.

After the first shock had somewhat faded away, she had tried to explain who she was and what she was doing there. That she was a captain of a starship and that they had only come down to the planet because they thought no sentient being lived here. 

Their sounds had not made any sense to her which meant that either the universal translator was not working or it simply couldn’t make out their language.

Through all of her confusion, she had noticed that they were confused as well or at least curious. The tallest one had even reached out a branch to her and had softly poked and stroked her with it.

Not wanting to start a fight and unable to contact Voyager, she had done the only thing she could think of: comply. Those were the protocols for First Contact after all and no matter how strange the situation was, this was First Contact.

The trees had talked a lot among themselves then and part of her had wondered if she shouldn’t just make a run for it. But she did not want to make any sudden movements that might anger them in any way. So she had stayed quiet and unmoving. 

After a while the largest tree had slowly unrolled vines and had very gently strung them in her direction. All of her instincts had told her to swipe them away, to fight or flee. But her Starfleet training overruled them. She would comply and come with them peacefully if that was what they wanted.

The trees had then carried her back to their base or whatever the strange structures in the large clearing were. They had put her on a ledge and then… simply ignored her as if they had forgotten that she was there. Instead they had just talked to each other from time to time and waited… For what she did not know.

She had looked around in amazement, trying to take it all in. It all looked like a strange but beautiful fairytale, including the walking and talking trees. These beings had not registered on any of their scans, nor had their structures which were quite impressive. 

It was then, in that clearing that she had first noticed the field in the sky and she wondered if that was the cause of her inability to contact Voyager. But even though she might have been close to its source, she couldn’t make out what it was made of.

Gently she had taken out her tricorder to scan both the field and the trees but one of the trees had immediately taken it from her with surprising speed. 

“I’m sorry.” She had said to them, raising her hands in surrender. “It is not a weapon, just an instrument. I’m an explorer. A scientist.”

But nothing had indicated that they understood what she had said. Instead the tricorder had been passed around until it reached the tallest tree, the one who had carried her there. It had hummed for a while, perhaps studying the instrument and then it had put it carefully aside on another structure and out of her reach. 

While she waited to see what would happen next, she wondered who had built it all. Were there other beings on this strange planet or had the trees somehow managed to build the structures themselves? That had seemed unlikely. The trees had to be waiting for someone to return to them. Maybe some sort of guardian or at least a humanoid, someone with the ability and the knowledge to create these things. And hopefully someone she could talk to.

For a while nothing had happened but then the smallest tree had moved towards her, holding out a piece of fruit to her. It had unrolled its vines to great lengths, as if it was afraid to get too near her. 

She had hesitated and looked at the fruit, wondering if it was safe to accept. If only she still had her tricorder… But then Neelix had brought very similar fruits and vegetables back to Voyager and none of them had turned out to be poisonous.

The tree had waited for her to accept it and the others had fallen silent as well, perhaps watching her with their hidden senses. 

Gingerly she had accepted the fruit but the waiting stances of the trees hadn’t changed. At that time she had been quite hungry and thirsty. She hadn’t had a real breakfast that morning and the day was passing quickly. She knew it was unwise to eat fruit that was handed to you by a being you didn’t know but then again… insulting them by not eating it, had seemed unwise too.

As the silence grew and grew, she had finally decided to throw all caution to the wind and had taken a bite of the green fruit. It had been delicious! The sweet juices had run over her chin as she couldn’t help the sounds of surprise she made as she registered the taste.

Satisfied with her eating, the smaller tree had moved back to the other two and they had continued to ignore her.

While she ate, she had told herself that the rest of the away team had probably returned to Voyager. That they must have told the others that she was missing and that her crew would be coming up with a plan to get her back. She had been sure that they would not simply leave her there, so she hadn’t been worried about that.

But she _had_ worried about Seven. About how her girlfriend was probably going out of her mind with worry and about how angry she must be too… Knowing Seven, she wouldn’t simply be content to follow protocol to get her back. Nor would she want to follow orders. But then again, Kathryn had realized she was in no position to blame her for that.

That had caused her to start berating herself. How could she have been so stupid as to go into the forest alone? Not once but twice! Heat had risen to her cheeks as embarrassment about the whole situation crashed over her. 

Here she was, the Captain of Voyager, stuck on a planet and held by strange beings because she had broken all protocol and had gone off on her own because she wanted to hide from her crew. When this story came out, and it would, the journalists would have quite a lot to say about this.

That had made her even more angry, not with the writers but with herself. How could she even think about them right now? What did it matter what they wrote about her? Her stupid insecurities about that had gotten her in this mess in the first place. 

With regret she had told herself that she should have just talked to Seven. A _real_ talk. Together they would have been able to figure it all out. Seven would have been able to calm her down. But she hadn’t accepted her help, not even when she had offered it to her directly in the Astrometrics Lab.

Then she had wondered if that was the last conversation they were ever going to have, replaying it in her mind. _”The Captain and I… we are done here.”_ Was that the last sentence she would ever hear in Seven’s sweet voice?

Fear and sadness had threatened to overtake the calm her training had generated. The waiting of the trees and the fact that nothing was happening had made it even worse. She had quickly tried to block out those feelings and had started to think of a way to communicate with these beings and to get back to Voyager.

But then, to her surprise, a fourth tree had moved into the clearing and she had immediately noticed the change in the moods of the trees. Where before the trees had seemed confused but still peaceful, there was now some definite tension in the air and she had tried very hard not to move as the fourth tree kept pointing at her with its branches.

Her thoughts had immediately gone back to the mining site. Maybe the tree had encountered the others… Whatever it was, something had happened and the trees weren’t happy with it. 

At least one of the trees wasn’t. It had been talking to the fourth one in loud sounds and had turned to the other quieter trees from time to time as if to convince them to join it in its indignation.

All of this had been speculation of course. Her brain was simply trying to make sense of all the sounds of the trees, trying to interpret emotions from the roars and grunts she was hearing. 

But as the two trees had started to become louder and louder, it had become harder for her to think. Her fear rose with every roar and she realized that this fairytale might turn dark, pretty quickly.

Then the tallest tree had given a big roar which suddenly ended all other sounds. _Enough._ That is how she had interpreted it and she had stopped breathing herself. Frozen she had watched as it had moved towards her. 

_Stay calm, Kathryn._ She had told herself as the tree once again took out vines and began wrapping them around her wrists and ankles. Maybe they simply wanted to take her somewhere else? Or to _someone_ else?

Her mind had quickly flitted back to her tricorder on the other structure and how she shouldn’t leave it behind but just as she was about to ask for it, sounds at the edge of the clearing distracted her.

“Kathryn!” Seven’s voice. 

For a moment she had thought that she had imagined it because she had been thinking of her girlfriend. But the tree had immediately tightened its hold on her and the others seemed to become agitated again as well, which meant they had heard it too. 

“Seven?” Kathryn had asked, still a little unsure. 

Hope had flared up inside of her but then also terror as the three other trees moved into formation, blocking Seven from her line of sight.

Then suddenly one of the trees backed away with a roar and Kathryn had strained her neck to try and see if Seven was hurt. And if she was alone. The larger tree, the one holding her, actually helped her by hoisting her higher in its branches.

Then she had spotted Seven. She _was_ alone and Kathryn had felt a pang of fear and disappointment as she watched her girlfriend face the giant trees by herself.

But she had also been moved. Seeing her girlfriend standing there with her phaser raised in one hand and a burning stick in the other sent a strange thrill through her. Seven had come for her. Despite their fight and Kathryn’s own stupidity, she had come for her. 

Then Kathryn had noticed the aggression in Seven’s stance and for a moment she had been reminded of the Borg Drone Seven had been. Ready to attack anything that moved.

“Seven, stop!” Kathryn had shouted at her just as Seven had taken a step towards the trees.

Kathryn had wanted to say so much in that moment. She had wanted to explain to Seven what had happened to her on the planet and what she thought of these trees. She had wanted to apologize to her for everything but there hadn’t been time. 

“Kathryn?” Seven had asked her and she could hear the confusion and slight hurt in Seven’s voice.

“Don’t hurt them.” She had replied, encouraged by the passiveness of the trees. 

“What do you mean?!” Seven had shouted back at her. 

“I don’t think they are dangerous!” Kathryn had continued her explanation, scrambling to get the idea across to her girlfriend with as little words as possible.

“They are keeping you captive!” Seven had said impatiently. 

“This is First Contact, Seven!” Kathryn had immediately regretted saying that because she knew that Seven did not care about Starfleet protocols, especially not in a situation like this.

“Are you joking?!” Seven had predictably shouted back and then everything had changed.

One of the trees had moved on Seven and she had defended herself with the fiery stick. Then all hell broke loose. Kathryn had tried to turn around a bit to talk to the tree holding her. Maybe it could calm the others somehow, it did seem to have had some sort of authority before. But the tree had simply tightened its vines around her. Not too badly but enough for her to choke on her words.

Then suddenly Seven had stood in front of them and Kathryn had simply stared at her in amazement. Love had coursed through her as Seven had bravely demanded that the tree let her go. 

“Seven…” Kathryn had whispered, probably too softly for either her girlfriend or the tree to hear.

But then Seven was suddenly pulled away from them again and Kathryn had screamed her name in fear.

“No, please! Stop!” Kathryn had shouted at the tree pulling Seven through the dirt and encircling her with its thorns. But it hadn’t heard her or it had simply ignored her. So she had turned back to the tree holding her. “Please, make it stop. She was just defending herself. Please, she is… with me. She and I, we are… together.”

Her mind had been completely clouded with fear but she had pushed on through her tears, trying to make the tree see why Seven was there. That she was simply there to get her back.

The relief she had felt when the tree had roared to make the other one stop had been overwhelming and despite the tight vines, she had tried to take in deep breaths to calm herself again. 

That relief and calm had vanished quickly when she had heard the whimper coming from Seven and she had seen the blood where the thorns cut into her girlfriend's skin. The soft sound cut through her like knives. 

“Seven!” Kathryn had shouted and then she had continued her pleading. “Please! I don’t know if you understand us… But please, just let us go! We mean you no harm!”

Then against all of her expectations, the large tree had lowered her to the ground. It had felt strange to stand again because her legs had felt numb. But she hadn’t waited for her blood flow to be restored as she ran to get to Seven. Nothing else had mattered. 

The angry sounds coming from the tree holding Seven had reached her ears but she had ignored it as she continued to run, stumble and climb her way to the woman she loved. 

“No!” Seven’s scream had finally made her look up and she could just make out a thorny vine coming her way before another vine, coming from behind her, swiped it away. 

She had looked in amazement at the strange tug of war that developed between the two trees but then she simply continued on, trusting that the big tree behind her had her back somehow.

“Seven! Oh Seven.” Kathryn had panted as her fingers danced over Seven’s sweet face. 

Guilt had crashed over her, causing tears to appear in her eyes, as Seven smiled up at her. She should not have been smiling. She should have been yelling at her, angry that she had first put herself in danger by going off on her own and then she had dragged Seven down with her too.

“Kathryn.” Seven had sighed. “You have to get out of here.”

“I am _not_ leaving you.” Kathryn had known it was stupid that she was now the one getting angry. 

She wasn’t really angry at Seven but she was angry with herself as she tried to find a way to untangle the thorns from Seven’s body. The sight of them digging into her girlfriend’s flesh had made her feel nauseous and her anger had suddenly veered off in the direction of the angry tree.

“The phaser…” Seven’s voice had cut through her despair and cleared her head. She had grabbed the weapon without hesitation and had stood up.

“Let her go! Now!” Kathryn repeated her demand to the tree in front of her. 

It lashed out another vine with thorns her way, probably to take the phaser away from her. But her ally, the tree standing behind her, simply wrapped the vine with one of its own. 

Then the tree that had been set on fire suddenly started talking again. It pointed at her, at the phaser, and then at a spot on its own bark.

The angry tree in front of her made a sound that could only be translated as a laugh and Kathryn was confused. What had the other tree said? Were they not taking her seriously? 

“I shot it.” Seven’s soft voice reached her ears and she resisted turning around to look at her. “I shot it with the stunned setting… and it… did not do any damage. They probably… think it can’t hurt them.”

They were at a stalemate. Frozen, except for the slight tugs of the encircled vines between the two trees.

Kathryn meanwhile considered Seven’s words. If it hadn’t been for the support of the leader tree, both Seven and herself would already be dead. And now the angry tree thought the only weapon they had left was useless… what if it was? But the fire had burned the tree… so they weren’t indestructible and the stunned setting was quite something else than the setting it was on now. 

Kathryn had quickly checked with her fingers and had found out that Seven had already set the phaser to maximum power. She really had come into the clearing all guns blazing… 

“Let her go.” Kathryn repeated herself one more time, hoping that the tree would make the first move to defuse the situation.

It didn’t. Instead it tightened its hold on Seven even further and her small cry of pain was the last drop for Kathryn.

She fired the phaser. 

The structure she had aimed for, because she had quickly pointed it away from the tree in front of her, exploded with a very loud crash. 

All four trees jerked in surprises and the two who had stayed back quickly moved into the forest. But Kathryn didn’t pay them any attention as she focused once again on the tree holding Seven. 

It had only two options now. Let Seven go or hurting her even further, maybe even kill her. Kathryn wanted to make sure it would make the right choice.

She pointed the phaser back at the tree. “Let her go! NOW!!!”

Slowly the vines were pulled back and Kathryn tried not to look at the droplets of blood that clung to the thorns as they disappeared between the branches of the tree. 

Instead she kept pointing the phaser at it until it had retreated to the tree line as well. It hesitated there, making a questioning sound directed at its leader. 

The large tree behind Kathryn hadn’t attacked her, even though she had just shot one of its structures and threatened one of its own. It simply made a humming sound and then the other tree disappeared into the green. 

Slowly Kathryn turned around while lowering the phaser in her hand. Keeping her eyes on the tree she raised her voice again. “I do not want to hurt you. We just want to get out of here.”

It did not move, nor did it make any sound. Kathryn waited for a few seconds but then the need to check on Seven became too great.

She knelt down next to her but her girlfriend was actually already sitting up. “Oh, Seven. I’m so sorry.”

“We will have time for that later.” Seven mumbled, keeping her eyes on the last tree in the clearing. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

“Do you have a way to contact Voyager?” Kathryn asked her.

“No.” Seven grunted. “The field… it’s blocking everything.”

Kathryn quickly looked back up at the sky and then back at Seven. “Can you walk?”

Seven winched as she allowed Kathryn to help her to her feet. “Yes.”

Kathryn glanced back over her shoulder at the tree as they moved back into the direction they had both come from but then she stopped. “Wait. My tricorder.”

“Just leave it.” Seven told her. “I have a backpack full of supplies in the bushes over there.”

“I can’t leave it.” Kathryn said. “We can’t leave anything behind.”

“Let me guess.” Seven gave a short laugh without humor. “The Prime Directive.”

Kathryn didn’t say anything as she gently let go of Seven. When she was satisfied that her girlfriend would remain standing on her own, she turned around and slowly walked back into the middle of the clearing. 

The tree still did not move, nor did it stop her as she reached out and took the instrument back. 

“I’m sorry.” Kathryn told it as she looked back at it for the last time. This was not how First Contact was supposed to go. “I’m really sorry and… thank you.”

Then she quickly walked back to Seven, slung her arm around her shoulder again and walked back into the forest with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always try to keep the chapters of a story around the same length but with this chapter I couldn't make it work. In the first draft I hadn't set out to go back in time and give you the same events from Kathryn's perspective but somehow it seemed relevant to do so, if only to explain some of her actions. Then I didn't want to keep you in angst over what was going to happen next so I moved the story along, in time, at least a bit. That is why this chapter is so long. I might have to go through the story soon to maybe change some things and at least fix some mistakes, but for now I simply posted this new chapter so you can read on. :)
> 
> I hope you still liked this chapter, despite its length, and if you have the time, please, let me know what you think.


	14. Hills

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading and for your patience. I haven't been able to go through the previous chapters to take out any mistakes yet but I hope to do so this weekend. For now, enjoy this new chapter!

“What are you doing?” Seven asked Kathryn as she started to open the backpack the moment they reached it. 

“Looking for a med kit.” Kathryn explained as she easily found what she was looking for. “I have to treat your wounds.”

“Not here.” Seven said as she tried to see through the bushes and trees to the clearing they had just left. Everything had gone back to being eerily quiet and she didn’t like it.

“Seven…” Kathryn started to object.

“No, Kathryn. We have to keep moving. Those trees might come back and your tree friend might not always be there to save us.” Seven said as she briefly closed her eyes against her pain. “There is an extra phaser in the bag. We should take that out.”

“And we can’t contact Voyager to beam us out? How did you even get down here?” Kathryn asked as she took out the phaser and handed it to Seven. She then put her own tricorder in the backpack and shouldered it. 

Seven knew it was too heavy for her. She had taken most of the equipment from the shuttle because she had thought she would be best suited to carry it. But right now she was in no state to help carry the bag at all. 

“The field in the sky is not only blocking our communication signals but our transporters as well.” Seven said as she started to walk again. “We flew in on a shuttle.”

“We?” Kathryn moved to Seven’s side but she did not try to wrap her arms around her again. It was difficult enough to maneuver through the forest while carrying the bag. Seven knew she would have to make it on her own stubbornness. 

“Tuvok, B’Elanna and the Doctor came with me.” Seven explained.

“And you got separated?” Kathryn asked but it sounded like she already knew what must have happened.

“Yes.” Seven said curtly. She did not want to think back on how she had abandoned her crewmates in her search for Kathryn. She did not even know where they were nor if they were safe. She did not want to think about what kind of hurt or trouble her actions might have caused them.

Before Kathryn could ask anything else though, a very strange slightly roaring sound surrounded them and they immediately stopped walking.

Seven looked around, confused at the sound and afraid that the trees were coming after them. 

“Rain.” Kathryn said simply as she held out a hand to catch some of the first droplets that got through the canopy of leaves above their heads. Seven now recognized the sound as well, it sounded like it was pouring down. Soon the leaves would be so heavy with water that they would get soaked.

“Where did you leave the others and where is the shuttle?” Kathryn asked her and Seven was quite relieved to hear the familiar tones of command back in her voice. “Is it far?”

“Yes.” Seven answered her. “We had to track through the forest for quite a while to pick up your trail. B’Elanna tracked our progress but… I am not sure if I will be able to find the shuttle.”

She knew it was true. Even with her eidetic memory, she would have trouble finding her way back to the mining site. All these trees looked the same and with a chill running down her back she realized that they also all looked like the walking and talking trees. 

After a short walk they entered another clearing and Seven looked up hopeful but the field was still shimmering in the sky. Apparently the rain had no trouble getting through it. If only their communication signals were not troubled by the magic of this planet either, then they could at least contact Voyager.

Seven looked back at Kathryn, watching the green light from the field illuminate her face. Now that they had moved away from the clearing with the strange fairylike light, Seven noticed how dark everything had become. Night was falling. 

“We have to find shelter.” Kathryn said as she apparently reached the same conclusion. She took out some water bottles from the bag, opened them and handed one to Seven. “Then I can treat your wounds, we can both get some rest and we will find a way back to Voyager in the morning.”

Seven nodded, happy that the Captain had come up with a plan. She felt utterly exhausted. First the fear of Kathryn being lost had wreaked havoc on her nerves, then she had chased the tree through the forest at top speed only to be attacked by one of its friends. 

“We should try to get out of the forest and away from the trees” Seven said a little hopelessly, this planet was covered with forests after all. 

“It looks like there might be mountains in that direction.” Kathryn said as she pointed in the direction where the forest floor rose slightly. Seven squinted through the rain and she could just make out dark shadows in the distance which could very well be mountains. 

Kathryn turned back to look at Seven, the Captain’s look of determination fading from her face as water got caught in her eyelashes. “It is a bit of a guess… and a risk.”

“We don’t have any other options.” Seven said as she carefully reached out her Borg hand, the one less damaged by the tree, and wiped a raindrop from Kathryn’s cheek. 

“I’m sorry, Seven.” Kathryn whispered as she leaned into the touch. 

Seven felt herself bristle inside. She did not want Kathryn’s apologies. At least not now. She needed her to be strong for both of them.

Perhaps her expression had told her girlfriend just that because Kathryn quickly straightened back up and started closing the backpack again.

“It’s too heavy.” Seven observed. “I’m sorry, I took all the gear I could think off.”

“That’s alright.” Kathryn said. “We might still need all of it.”

“There is some food in there as well, you should probably eat something.” Seven said, suddenly realizing that Kathryn had been stuck on the planet the whole day.

“Actually, the trees gave me a piece of fruit to eat and it was very… good.” Kathryn told her. “I don’t feel hungry at all, do you?”

“No.” Seven said. She didn’t think she could stomach any food right now. All she wanted was to get away from the trees.

She watched as Kathryn hoisted the bag on her back. She wanted to offer to carry it for a while but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to and she was definitely sure that Kathryn would not allow her to. So instead she just focused her attention on putting one foot in front of the other.

After a while, Seven became aware that Kathryn was actually holding back to match her speed. She was walking increasingly slower as her limbs grew heavy and her wounds stung with every raindrop that landed on her tender skin.

She lost track of time as it seemed more and more like they were trapped in some green nightmare. But Kathryn kept her spirits up. She kept saying that it was a good sign that they hadn’t heard anything from the trees again nor had they come across any other beings their initial scans had overlooked. 

The ground was also definitely rising and becoming more rocky. This made walking a bit more difficult but it was encouraging to know that they were probably leaving the forest for hills or mountains. The vegetation did seem to get less dense as well, or maybe Seven’s mind was simply playing tricks on her as she wished the trees away.

The best thing though, and the most heartening, was the fact that they were together again. Seven almost did not care about her pain nor that she was exhausted. Kathryn was there and if they were stuck, at least they were stuck together.

Her sensitive ears focused on Kathryn’s breathing and heartbeat and her feet followed its rhythm, it was almost like a mantra keeping her going. Her eyes were mostly focused on the ground to prevent her from falling but from time to time she glanced sideways to look at Kathryn and took heart from the determined look on her face. 

When they came across a rather large boulder, another sign that the terrain was changing, Kathryn stopped and put down the bag with a groan. She then said what Seven had been dreading for a while.

“I think I should go ahead and scout for a bit.” Kathryn said in a calm voice while the rain still poured down on them. 

Seven nodded because she knew that she was slowing them down and that Kathryn could go a lot faster if she didn’t need to carry the bag with her. Still the thought of separating was very unpleasant.

“I won’t go too far.” Kathryn said as she gently lifted Seven’s chin to look in her eyes.

Again Seven didn’t say anything but she did lean forward to capture Kathryn’s lips with her own. She tasted the fresh rain on them and the brief contact was almost enough to lift her spirits.

But then Kathryn pulled back and after giving her left hand a squeeze, she turned around and left. 

Seven watched as Kathryn leapt over the uneven ground with surprising speed and energy. She briefly wondered what kind of fruit the trees had given her girlfriend but then focused on her surroundings. 

The boulder was too high for her to sit on so she simply leaned back against it, keeping her eyes and ears open. The quiet of the planet was now completely drowned out by the sound of the rain. It limited Seven’s ability to hear anything coming her way but she was pretty sure that if the giant trees would attack, she would still be able to hear them or at least see them.

Keeping her phaser close she remembered that the trees might not be the only creatures on the planet that they had overlooked. She kept looking around and the longer Kathryn was away, the more if felt like there were hidden eyes watching her... 

Her unease and fear grew with every passing second. She tried to look at the wound on her side and the ones on her legs and arms but every time a raindrop landed rather loudly, her eyes flew back to the trees and plants close by.

Just when she was about to call out for Kathryn and follow her, her girlfriend reappeared. She was running back to her and for a moment Seven thought that she might be fleeing from someone. She raised her phaser but then noticed the smile on Kathryn’s face.

“I found a cave!” She shouted at Seven before reaching her. 

Relief flooded through Seven as she took a deep breath to stabilize her nerves. She knew caves could be dangerous but at least they would be out of the forest and, just as important, out of the rain. 

“It’s not far.” Kathryn said encouraging as she took the bag again and then helped Seven take the first few steps. 

She had gotten a little stiff from leaning against the rock after walking for so long and she stumbled a bit on the uneven and rocky ground. But Kathryn’s hands kept her steady and she followed her meekly up the slopes of the hill. 

After only a short time the trees disappeared completely and the hills fully appeared. Seven stopped for a minute to look at them. The terrain sloped gradually higher not offering much shelter but then her eyes followed Kathryn’s pointing finger and she could see the dark mouth of a cave in a cliff side nearby.

They climbed up towards it and as Seven walked inside she was so relieved to no longer feel the raindrops on her hurting skin that she almost sat down right there and then. 

“How deep is it?” She asked Kathryn instead.

“Not very deep.” Her girlfriend replied as she put down the bag again. “There is a small opening in the back, maybe a river once ran through here from the heart of the hills.”

“We should set up forcefields around the openings.” Seven said as she sat down on her hunches next to the bag and started to unpack it. 

“You brought forcefield generators?” Kathryn asked surprised. 

“Of course.” Seven replied. She wanted to explain about all the other things she had brought but she was too tired. Kathryn would simply have to see for herself what she had brought. 

“Maybe we should take care of your wounds first.” Kathryn suggested as she grabbed the med kit and started unpacking it.

“Forcefields first.” Seven mumbled. “Then maybe a fire?”

“Shouldn’t we just use the heater you brought?” Kathryn asked as she pointed to the machine with her thumb. 

“Maybe we should save that for emergencies…” Seven said unsure. It would be nice not having to go out again to look for any wood that was still dry enough to start a fire with.

“I think we already are in an emergency.” Kathryn said with a soft smile. “Anyway, starting a fire might only anger the trees if they find us or if they are watching us…”

Seven looked up at Kathryn’s face and knew that she had had the sense that someone was watching them too. That only made her want to put up the forcefields even faster.

Kathryn turned on the heater without another word and then went to the back of the cave to explore it more thoroughly and to put up a small forcefield at the opening there to shield them from anything attacking them from that direction. 

Seven meanwhile tried to set up the larger field to cover the cave’s mouth but she was having a little trouble with it as she couldn’t focus and she started to shiver from cold and exhaustion.

“Let me do it.” Kathryn’s voice made Seven jump a little as she had not noticed her approach.

“I got it.” She said a little grumpy.

Then finally the field hummed into existence and Seven’s unease dissipated a little as she watched the field become opaque, knowing that no one could see them now and no one could come in.

Taking her hand, Kathryn then firmly pulled her back to the middle of the cave and sat her down on a ledge next to the heater. Still without saying anything, she started to take off Seven’s tattered uniform jacket.

“I’m sorry.” Seven said, not sure what she was apologizing for. 

For the way she had reproached Kathryn’s offer to help with the forcefield, for her stubbornness or maybe for the fact that her rescue mission had gone so wrong.

“ _You_ don’t have to apologize.” Kathryn said as gently pulled the fabric away from Seven’s arms.

Seven groaned as they pulled her ruined gray undershirt up and over her head. The air around them was still a bit chilly and her whole body ached but her heart really clenched as she saw the look on Kathryn’s face as she stared at her wounds.

“Oh, Seven. I’m so sorry.” There were tears filling Kathryn’s gray eyes again. 

“It’s okay. These are not your fault.” Seven reassured her.

“But they are!” Kathryn persisted while she quickly took out the dermal regenerator and started working on the wound at Seven’s side. “If I hadn’t been so stupid, so reckless, so immature… All of this wouldn’t have happened and you wouldn’t be…”

She choked and Seven stopped her, grasping both of her hands in her own. “It’s okay, Kathryn.”

“Are _we_?” Kathryn asked her and tears were trailing down her cheeks now. “Are we okay, Seven?”

Seven wasn’t completely sure how to answer that. They were stuck in a cave on a hostile planet with magical trees who wanted to kill them. But a small voice inside her head told her that that was not what Kathryn was asking her about.

“Of course, we are.” She told her, wiping a tear away from Kathryn’s cheek. “ _We are._ ”

Kathryn sniffled and then shot her a small shaky smile before going back to healing her wounds. 

But Seven knew the conversation wasn’t over. They hadn’t been the best at talking lately but now… She couldn’t immerge herself in her work and Kathryn couldn’t run off to the forest again. They were stuck in a cave and they couldn’t avoid each other nor their issues anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time and you aren't bored yet ;) let me know what you think! (Also, if you are bored please let me know as well.)


	15. Cave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and another special thank you to those loyal readers who keep leaving comments. Your words always help me in my writing. Now then... please enjoy this chapter with the long anticipated talk.

“Thank you.” Seven mumbled quietly as Kathryn finished up with the dermal regenerator. 

“You’re welcome and it looked like your nanoprobes did most of the work already.” Kathryn said as she softly stroked her fingers over Seven’s soft skin and implants, thankful for her ability to heal so quickly. “If you hadn’t had those, who knows what the damage would have been.”

“Well, I guess I should be thankful that I was Borg then.” Seven said.

Kathryn knew that it was meant as a joke but she did not really like the tone of Seven’s voice. She watched in silence as Seven picked up her ruined uniform and then set it back down again with a sigh. 

Kathryn herself was starting to shiver as she was still wearing her clothes which had been soaked by the rain. Hoping to maybe ease Seven’s discomfort at being the only one undressed, she started to take off her own uniform.

Seven watched her for a while but then she quickly turned her attention back to the backpack with their supplies. “We should eat something. I brought quite a bit of food and I know we should ration it but… I’m starving.”

That’s when Kathryn started to wonder at her own lack of appetite. It was not that she was feeling ill or nauseous, she simply still felt full from the fruit she had eaten in the clearing. 

“You go ahead, I think I will be able to wait a while.” Kathryn said.

“Are you sure?” Seven asked her with a frown on her face. “What kind of food did they give you?”

“Just a piece of fruit.” Kathryn said while she spread out her clothes on the rocks near the heater, hoping that they would dry quickly. “It wasn’t even that big but it tasted really good and I guess it was very nutritious.”

“So you actually ate something _they_ offered you?” Seven asked her incredulous. 

“I know it was a risk but I didn’t want to offend them.” Kathryn told her as she turned back around.

Seven opened her mouth to respond but then she looked away again and pressed her lips tightly together.

“Seven…” Kathryn started but then stopped with a sigh. 

She walked over to where her girlfriend was sitting and sat down next to her. For a while she simply watched Seven as she ate some of the field rations. She did not seem to be enjoying the food.

“I just don’t understand how you could trust those trees so quickly!” Seven suddenly said in a rather loud voice that echoed across the cave. “I mean why? Why did you go into the forest alone? Again! And then why did you go with the trees to their base and why did you stop me from attacking them?”

“I know it doesn’t make much sense…” Kathryn started to explain but when she reached out to take Seven’s hand, her girlfriend actually jumped up as if she was afraid of her touch and walked over to the bag again.

“I know it was irresponsible and stupid, Seven.” Kathryn continued as she watched Seven take out a sleeping bag. “I know I shouldn’t have gone into the forest alone but…”

“But what?” Seven turned back around. “Why can’t you explain it to me, Kathryn? What is going on with you?”

Kathryn felt her cheeks heat up as she flushed from the accusative tone in Seven’s voice. 

“Are you telling me that all of this… this was caused by those stupid articles from Earth?” Seven raged on as she punched the sleeping bag into shape. 

“I’m really sorry, Seven.” Kathryn said as she stood up and walked over to Seven. “I’m sorry for…”

“I don’t want your apologies, Kathryn! I want an explanation!” Seven shouted back at her and Kathryn actually took a step back again but then she noticed the tears in Seven’s eyes.

“You could have died.” Seven choked out. “They could have killed you.”

Kathryn was lost for words as she tried very hard to figure out what she could say to calm Seven down. 

“Do you not care about that?” Seven asked her in a soft voice as she straightened back up. “Is that it?”

“Of course I care…” Kathryn said as she walked back over to Seven. 

“Do you have any idea how scared I was?” Seven continued questioning her as tears ran down her cheeks now. 

“I know, darling. I know.” Kathryn told her, thinking back on all the times Seven had been in danger. Most recently during her experiments with her lotion and before that with the surgeries. 

“I _can’t_ … lose you, Kathryn.” Seven sobbed and then she hid her face in her hands.

“Oh, Seven.” Kathryn said as she quickly wrapped her arms around her and hugged her close. 

She was aware that they were both only wearing their underwear but she did not care. All she cared about was making Seven feel better as she gently stroked her hands up and down her back. 

“You have to know that I wasn’t _looking_ for danger, I really wasn’t.” Kathryn choked out. “If I could turn back time, I would never have gone into those woods alone but… I can’t change what I’ve done.” 

Her girlfriend didn’t respond and the only thing Kathryn could hear for a while was Seven’s heavy breathing and the sound of the rain outside. But slowly she felt Seven relax a bit.

“I know it is hard but… I can’t promise you that you won’t lose me one day.” Kathryn said as she broke the silence, needing to have all the cards out on the table.

“I know.” Seven sniffled and Kathryn wanted to lean back and look at her face but Seven was holding her too tightly for that. 

“This job… our world, it is very dangerous.” Kathryn continued. “I will do everything I can to stay with you for as long as possible but chances are that I will die before you.”

“Why?” Seven said in a wry voice as she pulled herself free. “Because you’re older than me?”

“Well… yes.” Kathryn answered and then gave a short chuckle as she watched Seven roll her eyes at her. 

“You know I don’t care about that right?” Seven said as she took Kathryn’s hands into her own. “The age thing and the fact that you’re my captain… I don’t care about that Kathryn.”

Kathryn bit her lip. She didn’t want to upset Seven further. She really looked exhausted. Maybe they should have this conversation after she got some sleep… But Kathryn didn’t want to postpone it any longer. They never knew for sure what would happen next.

“Do you… do you feel like I took advantage of you?” She asked in a whisper.

“What?” Seven asked and the fact that she had only uttered that single word proved to Kathryn how confused and tired her girlfriend was.

“In the beginning, after I separated you from the Collective.” Kathryn explained while looking down at their joined hands and softly stroking Seven’s fingers, both Borg and human. “Do you think that I… molded you in any way? That I forced you to take on an identity _I_ wanted you to have?”

“Yes.” Seven simply answered and Kathryn paled as she looked back up into Seven’s blue eyes. But Seven wasn’t joking now.

“You do?” She choked out.

“Wasn’t that the point of me regaining my individuality?” Seven asked. “To become human again? To become part of your crew?”

“Yes but… do you feel like I _forced_ you? That I pushed you into being something or doing something you didn’t want to?” Kathryn pressed on.

“Yes.” Seven replied again with a frown on her face. “But that is not a bad thing, Kathryn. What I _wanted_ to do was get back to the Collective. What I _wanted_ to be was Borg. I didn’t want to be human. I didn’t want to be part of your crew. But you helped me.”

“By forcing you?” Kathryn whispered as she looked back down at their hands.

Seven released one and lifted Kathryn’s chin back up while softly stroking her cheek with her thumb. “Yes, by forcing me and I am very thankful that you did.”

“But I just wanted you to be _you_ …” Kathryn tried to explain. “I didn’t want to mold you in any way…”

“Didn’t you?” Seven said with a smile. “Because I remember you giving me a lot of lessons on how to be human and on how to behave onboard a starship. Some of them even involved clay modelling.”

“Yes but I never…” Kathryn said but then stopped with a big sigh. She was getting frustrated with her own confusing thoughts. “I never wanted to erase _you_ and replace you with a perfect crewmember or a girlfriend. I didn’t want to take advantage of you.”

“I know that and that’s not how it was.” Seven said. “You guided me and showed me the way, Kathryn. Without you, I wouldn’t be the person I am now and that is one of the reasons why I love you.”

Kathryn blushed and that blush only deepened as Seven leaned in and kissed her. 

The kiss deepened rather quickly, maybe because they were both still searching for warmth or maybe Seven had missed this as much as Kathryn had. Either way, she didn’t mind.

Kathryn’s head was spinning a little from their conversation and she told herself that it was mostly from relief at Seven’s words that she felt so dizzy but the kiss wasn’t helping either. She softly moaned against Seven’s lips as she relaxed into her girlfriend’s arms.

It was Seven who pulled back first. “Is this really why you have been acting so… different?” She asked Kathryn with a slight twinkle in her eyes.

“Yes, I guess so.” Kathryn smiled. “I know it was stupid but those articles… they put a mirror in front of me somehow and I suddenly… I started to doubt everything.”

“And this has nothing to do with me having been Borg?” Seven asked her and the twinkle was gone.

“No! Of course not. You know I don’t see you that way.” Kathryn said as she suddenly remembered Seven’s reaction to the articles and how she had told her that she was working on a solution… “I am sorry I did not consider your own insecurities before. We should have talked about that too but… When we get back home, I would love to see your designs for your regeneration machine.”

“Thank you.” Seven said with a smile and then she placed a small kiss on Kathryn’s nose. “It is really important to me.”

“Why?” Kathryn asked, feeling that it was her turn to ask questions now. “You know you don’t have to change for me, for us, right?”

Seven looked away to the opening of the cave and Kathryn watched as the green light of the field outside cast shadows across Seven’s serious face and glinted off her ocular implant. 

“I do _want_ to change.” Seven finally said in a small voice. “I don’t want to use Borg technology for the rest of my life. I want to be as human as possible. I want to be free.”

“Oh, Seven.” Kathryn said as she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend again. “You can be whatever you want to be. I will always support you. I just needed you to know that you don’t _have_ to look for solutions for _us_. I will love you no matter what.”

“Even though I am younger and your subordinate?” Seven asked, teasing her again which Kathryn took as a good sign.

“Yes.” Kathryn replied quickly, not eager to get back to that subject. “And I promise you, I will find a better way to deal with the attention from the press.”

“Maybe I can help you with that?” Seven asked her and there was a real vulnerability in her voice.

“Of course.” Kathryn said as she pulled back from the hug and brushed a loose strand of Seven’s hair behind her ear. 

“So… we _are_ okay?” Seven asked, echoing Kathryn’s question from before.

“Yes, we are okay.” Kathryn said with a smile as her fingers lingered on Seven’s neck.

“And you are not going to run off with any more trees again, are you?” Seven asked with a serious edge to her joking tone.

“No, I won’t and… I didn’t run off with them!” Kathryn started to defend herself but then stopped and simply kissed Seven again. If only to wipe the smug expression of her face. 

Seven laughed a little between kisses before everything heated up. The cave suddenly didn’t feel chilly anymore, despite the rain still pouring down outside. 

They knelt down on the sleeping bag together and there were no more words said as Kathryn lost herself in the feeling of Seven’s lips and hands. A feeling she had missed terribly and something she wanted to cherish for the rest of their lives together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations. It is never possible to solve just about everything with one single conversation and problems will always arise for our two ladies but at least they are on the same page again.  
> Please let me know what you think, any feedback is much appreciated!


	16. Flowers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has read my stories over the past six months! Because exactly half a year ago today, I posted the first chapter of Suppressive Fire. 225.000 words and 9 stories later, I still can't believe how much writing has brought me. Thank you for all of your inspiration and I will ask you to participate in a quick poll for the occasion. But first... the next chapter!

Seven felt very disoriented when she woke up. She heard the familiar sound of rain falling but somehow it sounded different from the usual track she played in the Cargo Bay during her regeneration. She also realized that she hadn’t been regenerating but sleeping, with Kathryn in her arms.

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Kathryn’s beautiful and peaceful face and she couldn’t help but smile. As she snuggled closer to her girlfriend she suddenly became aware of the sleeping bag surrounding them and then she remembered where they were. 

Gently, as not to wake Kathryn, Seven untangled herself and sat up slightly. All of her senses were alert again as she looked around the cave and her ears strained to hear any strange sounds. 

But everything looked peaceful and, except for the rain, everything was still eerily quiet. The rain was still falling but it seemed to fall more gently than last night and Seven could actually see sunlight filtering through the strange field outside which was, unfortunately, still up.

She shook her head as she realized that they were safe even though they had both fallen asleep. Despite all of her preparations and despite the fact that she did not trust anything on this planet, she had not had the strength to stay awake.

She had been exhausted before she and Kathryn had celebrated being together again and after that everything else had just faded to the background as she enjoyed the warm glorious feeling she got from spending nights with Kathryn. 

But it had been very irresponsible. They were still on a hostile planet, even though they had surrounded themselves with forcefields and those giant trees wouldn’t be able to come into the cave anyhow. 

But their vines might, she thought as she felt her skin prickle from the memory of the thorns digging into her. Quickly she glanced down at her arms but there was no trace from the fight with the tree. The dermal regenerator and her nanoprobes had healed her completely and due to her good night’s sleep, she felt a lot better too. 

But she still felt on edge. The sooner they would come up with a plan to reach the shuttle or contact Voyager the better. Slowly, she freed her legs from the sleeping bag so that she could get out. She stretched her spine as she stood on the cave's floor and then walked towards the cave's mouth to look outside. 

Her eyes were immediately drawn to the sky and to the damned field sparkling back at her. She hoped that Chakotay and the rest of the crew were coming up with a plan to get them home somehow because her own ideas were not fool-proof.

 _If_ she and Kathryn were able to find the mining site again, the shuttle might be gone. Tuvok, the Doctor and B’Elanna could have returned to Voyager with it. So maybe trying to get back to the site wasn’t a good idea. Maybe if they climbed these mountains high enough they could get some communication signals past the field. Maybe even call for a transport. 

She hadn’t really noticed how high the mountains were when she had stumbled into the cave the night before. But she did know that this hill they were in was just the beginning of a mountain range. They were already quite high up and as she lowered her gaze she could actually see quite a large part of the forest…

She froze completely as her eyes landed on the huge flowers making their way towards the cave’s mouth. They swayed softly, as if they were swaying in the wind but there was no wind… and the swaying actually moved them closer and closer. Also, they clearly hadn’t been there the night before.

“Kathryn!” Seven whispered as she slowly took some steps back without taking her eyes off the flowers. “Kathryn, wake up!”

“What’s going on…” Kathryn mumbled. “Seven?”

“Wake up and get the phasers.” Seven told her, holding a hand out behind her for one of their weapons.

She heard Kathryn scramble to her feet and only a few seconds later she felt the reassuring feeling of the phaser in her hand.

“Is it the trees? Have they followed us?” Kathryn whispered as she took position next to Seven.

“No, no trees. Flowers.” Seven whispered back.

“What?” Kathryn asked her and then suddenly the rain stopped. 

The following silence was deafening even though there were still some droplets falling to the ground and Seven felt every one of them like an electric shock as she focused all of her attention on the flowers moving towards them.

“They weren’t there before, right?” Seven asked Kathryn just to be sure, she had been pretty tired last night.

“No.” Kathryn answered and the confusion was finally gone from her voice. 

“What do we do?” Seven asked her as she checked the setting on her phaser.

“Nothing. We don’t know what they are.” Kathryn answered her.

“They are _moving_. So I am guessing they are of the same kind as those trees.” Seven hissed back. 

“We don’t know anything, Seven.” Kathryn said firmly. “Besides, we are shielded by the forcefield.”

That eased Seven’s agitation a bit but not much as the flowers were getting very close now. 

“How big was that opening in the back of the cave?” She asked Kathryn, thinking of an escape.

“Large enough to crawl through.” Kathryn said, clearly thinking the same thing. “Go pack everything up, I’ll keep my eyes on them.”

Seven didn’t question the order as she quickly and as quietly as possible turned back around. She first turned off the heater and then packed everything back in the backpack. From time to time she glanced back at Kathryn. 

Her Captain was only a silhouette in the cave’s opening but her pose did not seem agitated as she simply stood guard behind their forcefield. 

Seven quickly put on the tattered remains of her uniform. It was stained with dirt and her blood but at least it had dried somewhat and it made her feel a lot better, not having to face the magical nature of this planet in her underwear. 

She hoisted the backpack on her shoulders, grabbed Kathryn’s clothes and then quickly joined her girlfriend a few feet from the cave’s mouth. To her horror she saw that the flowers had moved right next to the forcefield.

Without a word she handed Kathryn her clothes and held her phaser as she waited for her to get dressed.

“Should we run?” She whispered when Kathryn had taken her phaser back. 

“We don’t know if that opening in the back really is an exit. It could be a dead end.” Kathryn answered her. “We should only go in there as a last resort.”

Seven knew she was right. Their best way of escape was the opening in front of them but the flowers were blocking it now.

Then they started to shimmer and sparkle as they slowly opened up, a strange cloud of what looked like dust came out of them. 

Stories about dangerous and poisonous pollen entered Seven’s mind and she threw the backpack to the floor to take out the masks she had stored in there but Kathryn’s hand on her shoulder stopped her. 

As she looked back up, she saw two humanoid figures step out of the flowers… and right through the forcefield. 

Kathryn gasped and tightened her hold on Seven’s shoulder as her girlfriend raised her phaser at the two figures in front of them. 

They were beautiful and Kathryn was immediately reminded of nymphs from the ancient stories on Earth. They did not wear clothes but they also did not seem to have skin. They merely existed as part of the flowers they had stepped out of. They seemed to be made up of color mostly but they sparkled so much that Kathryn couldn’t even be sure that they were solid. 

What was comforting though was that they, unlike the trees, had faces. Their noses were unlike anything Kathryn had seen so far and their mouths were very small but they had big luminous eyes that stared at them.

She felt Seven’s shoulder twitch underneath her fingers and she knew that her girlfriend was itching to fire her phaser. The fact that these beings had stepped through their forcefield as if it was nothing had rattled her too. But other than that they had done nothing aggressive as they simply stared back at them.

“Hello.” Kathryn said in a quiet voice.

The only one who responded was Seven as she quickly looked at Kathryn in surprise but then immediately returned her gaze to the flower people. 

One of them had actually tilted their head slightly at the sound of her voice and then raised one of its many arms and made gestures with a hand with eight fingers on it. They made no sounds.

Kathryn tried to think as fast as she could. Thankfully, her training as a Starfleet Captain had prepared her for situations like this. Somewhat.

“My name is Kathryn.” She said and she wanted to put her hand to her chest to indicate that she was talking about herself but she was still holding her phaser with one hand and keeping Seven restrained with the other. She quickly put the phaser in the strap at her hip and then repeated her name while pointing at herself. “Kathryn.”

The flower people looked at each other and there was a strange exchange of light and dust between them. Almost as if they were communicating through the colorful dust that hung between them in the air. 

“Seven, lower your phaser.” Kathryn whispered to her girlfriend who was still standing in an aggressive pose.

“Kathryn…” Seven growled quietly but clearly disgruntled. 

“Do it.” Kathryn said, still in a quiet voice but this time it was laced with command. 

Slowly, Seven lowered the weapon but she did not put it away and her finger was still very much ready to fire. 

But the effect was immediate as a soft glow surrounded the flower people and they made more hand gestures.

Of course, Kathryn still didn’t understand them but she was quite happy with how things were going so far. Maybe the flower people understood them better than they did the other way around. It was never good to simply assume that you were the most advanced being in a stand-off like this. They might even understand their speech.

“I’m _Kathryn_.” She repeated as she pointed to herself and then pointed at her girlfriend. “This is _Seven_. We are travelers. We travel the stars.”

As she said that last bit, she pointed up and the flower people actually followed the movement of her finger and stared at the ceiling of the cave for a while before looking back at each other and exchanging more colorful dust. 

This exchange took a while and Kathryn wasn’t sure what to do next except wait to see what these beings would do next.

“Kathryn?” Seven asked her as she shifted back and forth from one foot to the other, clearly still agitated.

“Easy, Seven.” Kathryn shushed her. “Give them time.”

Then one of the flower beings walked forward and Kathryn had to squeeze Seven’s shoulder to prevent her from stepping in front of her. 

Gently, the person put one of its arms within its own body and when it pulled it back there was a small stone in its hand. It held it up high for them to see.

“What is that?” Seven hissed. 

“It looks like a piece of earth or mineral.” Kathryn said but she couldn’t be sure.

The stone was still held out for them to see so it was clearly important. Kathryn looked into the strange eyes of the being in front of them and they were burning with a passion, as if they were willing her to understand. 

Drawn in by those eyes and by her own curiosity, Kathryn took a step forward and stretched out her hand to the stone.

The reactions of the flower beings was immediate and quite strong. The one holding the stone quickly pulled it back into its body and the other one walked forward to stand next to its friend. 

Seven had also responded right away and had actually pulled Kathryn back. “What are you doing?!”

“I think the stone is important.” Kathryn tried to explain.

“Yes, clearly it is.” Seven said as she raised her phaser again. 

The other flower person radiated a rather fierce red light now as it kept its eyes firmly on Seven while stretching out two arms to its friend who had held out the stone.

“I’m sorry.” Kathryn said to the beings, holding her hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry, I did not mean to take the stone from you.”

The one who had showed them the stone turned back to its companion and the exchange of light and color was rather fast this time. Kathryn found it quite hypnotic to look at. 

Then it took out the stone again and placed it on the ground between them. Kathryn hesitated but did not want to make the same mistake again so she stayed put. “Seven, can you scan the stone?”

Seven shot her another unhappy look because she would need to take off the backpack to get a tricorder out and she would need to let go of her phaser to do that. 

So Kathryn simply took a step back with a sigh and then reached up to take the instrument out of the bag. Thankfully Seven had packed it near the top with their food and water. 

“This is just an instrument.” She told the flowers, not wanting to upset them in the same way as she had the trees when she had taken out the tricorder in the clearing. “I’m just going to have a better look at your stone.”

She waited to see if the beings would respond but they simply stared back at her and at the tricorder without moving. Their lights didn’t change.

Her scientific curiosity almost made her scan the flower beings first but she knew that diplomacy was more important now so she just scanned the stone. “Oh…”

“What?” Seven asked her urgently, still keeping her phaser ready.

“The stone.” Kathryn explained. “It is made of the same mineral that we were excavating at the mining site. This is the mineral we were taking back to Voyager.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think of these flower beings and the rest of the chapter. :) 
> 
> Now for the poll:  
> The next story in the series will be another E-rated story. My plan was to have this story take place in the Captain's Ready Room but now I'm thinking that maybe you would rather read what happened in the cave during the night. Then again, you might want to keep that a mystery. So here is the question: Ready Room or Cave?  
> Let me know in the comments or answer the poll on my Instagram or both. :)


	17. Mineral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for coming back and thank you to everyone who voted in the poll of the last chapter. I should have realized that so many of you would opt for the non-existent option 'both'. ;) But I take it as a compliment.  
> Once this story is finished, I will reveal what I have decided, giving other people a chance to still leave their vote in the meantime.  
> For now, let's go back to the flower people...

“So it is the same mineral, what does that mean?” Seven asked Kathryn in the same agitated voice she had used ever since the flower beings had stepped inside the cave.

“I don’t know but it must be important.” Kathryn replied to her and then slowly set down the tricorder on the ground.

She turned her attention back to the flower people who still hadn’t taken back the stone. So Kathryn pointed at it. “What does this mean?”

The one who had showed them the stone picked it up again. Then it made some more gestures with its other hands and put the stone back in its body. It folded all of its hands over the spot where the stone had disappeared and closed its eyes.

A warm golden glow surrounded the being and it lit up the cave almost in the same way as the clearing of the trees had sparkled with magic but much brighter. 

Kathryn looked around in amazement and noticed how the colors of the dust that still hung between the two beings was casting colorful shadows all over the cave’s walls… and Seven.

Kathryn couldn’t stop herself from openly staring at Seven. The light made her skin look so incredibly soft and it glinted off her visible implants in a very mesmerizing way. The golden tones in her hair were accented with all the other colors and when she looked back at Kathryn, her blue eyes sparkled with so many different hues of blue that Kathryn almost forgot how to breathe. Subconsciously she reached out one of her hands to touch a loose strand of Seven’s hair.

“Kathryn…” Seven said her name after a pause, using a very different tone of voice but the urgency was still there. After returning her gaze for a while, she turned her attention back to the two beings in front of them, waking Kathryn up from her daze.

When she looked back at them too, she noticed how the light was receding again and she had to blink a bit to adjust. Suddenly the lively colors of the planet seemed quite dull in comparison but the eyes of the flower people were still luminous as they stared back at her.

The other person, the one who had not made any move in their direction yet and had seemed to wait for its friend to do the talking, suddenly pointed at Kathryn and then at Seven while making some gestures. 

Kathryn frowned and then softly shook her head as if to indicate that she did not understand their gestures. Apparently it understood her confusion because it repeated the pointing but then it took one of the hands of its friend, pointing down at their joined hands. 

The light of the dust that hung between them started to pulse in colors of gold and rose and Kathryn suddenly understood. 

“Yes.” She said as she took Seven’s free hand, the one not holding the phaser, and pointed at her and at herself. Then she placed her hand over her heart. 

This seemed to please both of the beings and they talked amongst each other for a while. After that the one with the stone took it out of its body again and the light diminished even further. It held the stone up, imploring her with its eyes to understand the significance of it.

“I understand.” Kathryn told them, pointing to the stone and then placing her hand over her own heart again while squeezing Seven’s hand.

“Do you?” Seven asked her with a shaky voice.

Kathryn tore her eyes away from the light and looked at her girlfriend who was frowning back at her in confusion. She had lowered the phaser and her hand now hung limply at her side. 

“The stone. I don’t know what it means exactly but I think it is tied to them. To their light and maybe even their lives.” Kathryn said as she looked back at the beings. “We should never have come here.”

“We didn’t know…” Seven said defensively. “We didn’t know that there were sentient beings on this planet.”

“No… but we do now.” Kathryn said while her mind was racing with what to do next. 

“We understand.” She told the flower people again while pointing at the stone. “We shouldn’t have come here. We shouldn’t have taken your stone.”

The person holding up the stone nodded at her, made some more hand gestures and then put the stone back in its body. It then opened up its hands, reaching out to them, waiting. 

“Yes.” Kathryn said, hoping that they would understand. “The stone is yours.”

Then the person pointed at them again and then up. Kathryn knew it was not pointing at the ceiling and with relief she realized that it must have understood that they came from the sky. It took out the stone again, held it up while still pointing up with another hand and then slowly pulled it back inside. 

“It wants what we have taken to Voyager.” Kathryn said more to herself than to Seven. 

“I’m sure they can have it _all_ back but we can’t exactly ask the others to beam it down right now.” Seven grumbled. 

“We will give everything back.” Kathryn told the flowers and she made some gestures with her free hand which hopefully indicated that they were willing to return everything they had taken.

“We can’t contact our ship, our people, right now.” She said as she first pointed back up and then pressed her combadge.

The disconnect sound it made thankfully did not startle the flowers as they merely stared at the badge. 

“The field in the sky.” Kathryn said while she pointed outside and up. “It is preventing us from talking to them.”

The most talkative of the flowers had turned around to look at the field glistening in the sky and then back at her. It pointed at itself with two hands while it waved two of its arms high above its head and then pulled them down. Then its two hands pointed at Kathryn while another one held up the stone one more time, first high up the air and then pulling it back again.

Kathryn was amazed at how much they seemed to understand each other now and she nodded enthusiastically at this offer to take the field down. 

But then the light between the two people changed to an angry red and the other one started exchanging dust with its friend in a rapid pace. 

“They can bring down the field.” Seven said in a quiet voice. 

“Yes, that is what I understood as well.” Kathryn replied. “When they do, we can bring down all the stone.”

“And leave this place.” Seven finished her thought and Kathryn understood her desire to go back home, even though she was rather enjoying talking to these flower beings now. 

However, the discussion in front of them went on for a long time and the colors of red and purple only became darker and darker which she did not think was a good sign. 

“The other one doesn’t believe us.” Seven once again said what they were both thinking. “How can we convince them that you will keep your word?”

Kathryn racked her brain as she tried to think of any gestures that might help. If only she had a piece of the mineral they had taken and which the beings clearly valued so much. Then she would happily give it back to them, as a symbolic start of returning everything they had taken from the planet. 

Because she was not going to take any risks. When she could contact Voyager again, she would tell them to beam down _everything_ they took. Even Neelix’s vegetables and fruits…

With a start she realized that she _did_ have something, something she had taken herself from the planet. 

“The flower...” She mumbled. 

“Which one?” Seven asked quickly, glancing at the two flowers standing in the cave’s opening, the ones the people had stepped out from. 

“No, I picked a flower on my last walk in the forest.” Kathryn said as she started pulling at the backpack, urging Seven to take it down. “I put it with my tricorder when the trees found me. Now I can return it to them as a symbolic gesture.”

She quickly started to unpack everything from the bag, knowing that the flower must be somewhere on the bottom because she hadn’t seen it for a while. 

“Kathryn…” Seven urged her on and from the corner of her eye Kathryn saw Seven’s hand with the phaser twitch. She also noticed how the light had dimmed once again… The flower people weren’t talking to each other anymore. They were watching her.

She almost overturned the whole bag in her haste to get to the flower and she made quite a bit of noise that harshly echoed around the cave. But then finally her fingers found it. 

As she pulled it out, she realized that it was not in good shape and her heart sank a little. It had lost some of its petals and had started to wither. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea? What would they do when they found out that she had plucked a flower? Killing it in the process. Maybe that was even worse than taking the mineral… they _were_ flower people after all…

As she glanced back up, she noticed how their eyes had locked onto the flower in her hand. She slowly straightened back up again, a small part of her was happy that Seven was still alert and still had the phaser in her hand. 

The light between the two people suddenly flared up and the dust between them changed color to match the blue petals of the flower in Kathryn’s hand. 

“I’m sorry.” Kathryn said as she held out the flower, holding it out to them. “I’m sorry about everything we took.”

She took one step forward and then placed the flower on the floor, as close to the beings as she could without coming any closer herself. 

Then she retreated back to Seven’s side and waited. The beings hesitated and more dust was exchanged but then the one with the stone moved forward and picked the flower up from the ground. 

It held it firmly between two of its hands and the flower started to glow. It became a shining point of light before it dematerialized and the light scattered up through the arms of the being, being absorbed by its own light. 

Kathryn had to swallow a bit before she could speak again. “We will return everything else to you. I give you my word and… I’m really sorry we invaded your home.”

She had pointed up again as she spoke and then down at the beings in front of them but it was impossible to know if they had understood her nor if they were angry with her. 

Their light pulsed one more time and then they both retreated back towards the cave’s mouth and back towards their own flowers.

“Should we let them leave?” Seven asked but her voice was filled with doubt and confusion.

“We can’t really stop them.” Kathryn said and she suddenly felt very sad. 

The withered flower she had picked, it had somehow showed her her own greed. Humanity’s greed. She had taken it as a present for Seven but she had not thought about how it would die. Because it would have died on Voyager eventually. Plus, they had given nothing back to this planet. They had only come here to take.

Seven moved closer to her side and took her hand in her own again as they both watched the beings dematerialize back into the flowers.

Then they started to pulse with the golden light that Kathryn had seen in the clearing. The light became very bright, so bright that she had to shield her eyes to be able to keep watching. 

Then lines appeared on the ground, lines of light that moved off at an amazing speed towards the forest. 

“They must be talking to the trees.” Kathryn mumbled in wonder.

“Yes, but what are they saying?” Seven asked, squeezing her hand a little tighter as the light moved away from them and the darkness of the cave surrounded them again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time, let me know what you think.


	18. Dust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and thank you for those of you who give me feedback. It is very much appreciated. I hope you'll like this new chapter.

Seven felt really uncomfortable, waiting for something to happen. The flowers still stood in the cave’s mouth but the lines of light they had shot off towards the forest had completely disappeared. 

She held on tightly to Kathryn’s hand, mostly to anchor herself. If she had been there alone, she might have just shot the flowers out of the way or at least made a run for it. 

“Maybe we should pack everything up. Just in case…” She suggested, aware of the forcefield generators that were still active in the cave. 

If they were going to make a run for it, she wanted to bring those with her. The flower beings had simply stepped through the fields, but they might still work against the trees.

“Okay.” Kathryn said in a small voice as she bend down to pick up her tricorder.

Seven looked at her and sensed how sad she was which confused her. “Kathryn?”

“I’ll get the generator from the back.” Kathryn said without turning back around and then she just walked away. 

Seven didn’t understand what had happened and there was no time to ask questions. Carefully she walked closer to the cave’s entrance and the generator. She kept her eyes on the giant flowers and her phaser was ready in her hand. 

But they did not move again, nor did anyone step out of them. They simply stood there, waiting themselves. But for what? Reinforcements? 

She reached the generator and quickly turned it off. Still nothing happened, so she brought it back to where their bag was still standing on the ground. Kathryn had taken almost everything out of it in her search for the flower so Seven started packing it again as quietly as she could. 

“Are you alright?” She whispered as Kathryn came back. 

“Yes, I’m fine.” Kathryn said as she handed her the second generator and her tricorder. “Just sad that we hurt these beings.”

“We didn’t _hurt_ them, we just took some of their stone.” Seven reminded her in a louder voice. “Which we were going to give back to them, if they had just lowered the field.”

A flash illuminated the cave and they quickly looked outside. From the heart of the forest a light surged up into the sky. It connected with the field with a loud crash that almost sounded like glass breaking and golden sparks danced across it like fire. The field shimmered and sparkled… a d then simply vanished. 

Seven abruptly straightened back up in suprise. “It’s gone. They took it down.”

“They weren’t angry.” Kathryn said with a big sigh of relief. “They _did_ believe us.”

“Believe _you_ ” Seven said with pride. “You are a very skilled diplomat.”

Kathryn smiled back at her but then they both jumped as a voice echoed through the cave. 

“Chakotay to the Captain. Kathryn can you hear me?”

“Yes! Chakotay I can hear you!” Kathryn said and her smile widened. 

“Are you alright?” He asked her urgently. “Is Seven with you?”

“Yes, we are together and we are fine!” Kathryn answered him. “We have made contact with… flower… people… and they have just taken down the field.”

“Flower what?” Chakotay sounded very confused and Seven couldn’t help but smile as she looked back at the flowers in the cave’s entrance who were softly swaying again. 

“It is a bit hard to explain.” Kathryn told her First Officer. “Chakotay, listen. We need to give back everything we took from the planet.”

“Are you being held hostage?” He asked her, clearly thinking that Kathryn was explaining a demand of ransom to him. “We have a lock on both of you and we can beam you back to Voyager right now.”

Seven felt a rush of relief at this news and she looked at Kathryn with pleading eyes but she knew the Captain would not leave, not until they had given back everything that they had taken.

“We are not being held prisoner.” The Captain told him. “I just want to wait until everything we took is back here on the planet.”

“Alright…” Chakotay said in a hesitant voice. “You mean the mineral?”

“Yes, the mineral and everything else. Make sure that Neelix gives up his cooking supplies as well.” Kathryn commanded him. “It is hard to explain but there are several species of sentient beings here on the planet and we shouldn’t have just taken whatever we liked.”

“Alright.” Chakotay said and then paused for a bit. “I have just given the order, everyone is instructed to gather up everything we took.”

“Commander?” Seven felt weird pushing in on their conversation but she needed to ask him something herself. “Did the others return safely to Voyager?” 

She felt her throat close up with guilt as she remembered running away from Tuvok, B’Elanna and the Doctor while they were shouting her name.

“Yes, Seven.” He answered her not unkindly. “They returned in the shuttle shortly after… you took off.”

She did not say anything back but she was very relieved to know that at least the others weren’t mixed up in the strange magic of this planet.

Kathryn smiled at her knowingly before she looked back at the swaying flowers in the cave’s mouth. 

“Captain, once we have gathered everything, where do we transport it to?” Chakotay asked.

Seven watched as Kathryn hesitated. “Hold on a second, Chakotay.” 

“Do you think it matters where we transport it to?” Seven asked her after Kathryn broke the connection with Voyager, a little incredulous at Kathryn’s patience and compliance with these plants. 

“I don’t know… But we could ask.” Kathryn said and then simply marched right over to the flowers. 

Seven quickly scooped up the bag and then followed her. She shouldered the bag but still held on to her phaser. She loved how Kathryn seemed to trust these beings but she wanted to make sure that the Captain would not get hurt. 

“I have made contact with my ship.” Kathryn spoke to the flowers as she pointed up at the clear sky. “Where can we return the things we have taken from you?”

She looked back at Seven as if she knew how crazy it looked for her to talk to these swaying flowers without knowing if they could hear her but then the golden light reappeared. 

Both flowers started to glow and then two new lines of light appeared in the ground. The lines moved away from the cave and then circled around a flat piece of ground a few feet away.

“Janeway to Chakotay.” Kathryn renewed her contact with Voyager.

“Yes, Captain.” He replied right away.

“There is a flat piece of ground about 10 feet away from my current position in the direction of the forest. When you’re ready, please transport everything to that spot. Can you do that?” She asked him. 

“Stand by, Captain.” He told her and then the silence returned.

Kathryn smiled encouraging at Seven, probably understanding that she was still feeling uncomfortable. Seven was grateful as she returned the smile and reached out to softly touch her hand with Kathryn’s but she did not take it as she wanted to stay alert.

The lines of light still danced around on the ground and the flowers still swayed softly but other than that, nothing moved and nothing made a sound. Seven kept glancing back at the forest, expecting the trees to come back any second now… but nothing happened.

She could feel the minutes slip by and her skin started to crawl because every fiber of her being knew that it was now possible for them to simply leave this planet and go home but still she had to wait. 

Kathryn looked a lot more relaxed as she kept her eyes on the flowers, studying them. She looked quite adorable, the way she had slightly tilted her head… 

“Chakotay to the Captain.” Chakotay’s voice abruptly broke the silence again.

“Go ahead.” Kathryn answered immediately.

“We are ready to transport everything back to the surface, Captain. Including the vegetables.” He said and Seven thought she detected a small note of humor in his voice but maybe he was just relieved to have found his Captain.

“Proceed, Commander.” Kathryn gave the order and then they both watched as all of the material the crew of Voyager had taken materialized in front of them in neat heaps. 

The flowers immediately started to pulse and shimmer and then the two beings stepped out of them again. 

Seven tried to see how this was possible, her scientific mind desperately tried to make sense of it all but the light was so blinding that even her Borg eye could not see how this metamorphosis occurred. 

Her instincts told her to raise the phaser again but Kathryn’s smiling face restrained her. 

“Captain? Was the transport successful?” Chakotay asked.

The flower people did not respond to his voice but one of them briefly looked up at the sky as if it was trying to see the ship that the voice was originating from.

“Yes, Chakotay. We are just… saying goodbye.” Kathryn said while glancing back at Seven. 

Seven really wished that Kathryn had just given him the order to get them out of there but she knew that the Captain would not want to end this First Contact that way.

“Thank you for lowering the field.” Kathryn thanked the flower beings after taking another step in their direction. “My people have given everything we took back to you. I hope there was no harm done.” 

The flower beings did not speak but they made quite a few gestures with their hands and the dust surrounding them was filled with a soft light filled with pastel colors. 

“We will return to our ship now.” Kathryn said as she pointed at Seven, then at herself and finally back at the sky. “Again, I’m really sorry and thank you for… understanding.”

Both of the flower people clasped all of their hands together and then nodded at Kathryn and Seven in turn. 

Kathryn took a few steps back and Seven quickly followed her lead, staying close by her side. 

“Janeway to Voyager.” Kathryn’s clear voice rang out. “Two to beam up.”

Seven held her breath until she could hear the sound of the transporter beaming them back home. She had never been so relieved to see the Transporter Room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have the time, please let me know what you think. Really, any feedback is welcome.


	19. Dirt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your patience and I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter. Happy weekend!

“Welcome back.” The Doctor greeted them. He gave the Captain a smile but when he took in the state of Seven’s uniform a very stern and concerned look appeared on his face.

“Doctor…” She said hesitantly. “It’s… good to see you again.” 

“And you.” He said with a sigh, before simply stepping forward to scan them with his instruments. 

Seven noticed how he had walked through a forcefield to get to them. Before she or Kathryn could ask him about that though, the doors to the Transporter Room opened up and Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Torres walked in.

“Captain!” Chakotay exclaimed with a smile. “It is so good to see you again. You too, Seven.”

“Thank you, Chakotay.” Kathryn said with a smile. “It is good to be back.”

“What happened?” B’Elanna asked but her question was directed at Seven. “The tree… did you escape it? We were so worried but Tuvok… he thought it best to go back.”

“He was right.” Seven quickly said. One look at Chakotay’s face told her that he agreed and that she wouldn’t be going on any more away missions any time soon. “I was being very irresponsible and I’m… glad that you three made it back safely.”

“We all knew you were reckless.” The Doctor said while still circling and scanning them. “But running into a forest with walking trees is a bit of an extreme… even for you.”

“Seven saved me.” Kathryn said, ending all further questions for Seven as everyone turned to look at the Captain. “I was taken by the trees and she… got me out.”

“Did they hurt you in any way?” The Doctor asked her urgently as he took out another instrument to scan her.

“No, not me.” Kathryn answered, nodding her head at Seven in her tattered uniform.

“Hmmm, your nanoprobe count is quite low, Seven. You need to regenerate.” The Doctor told her but Seven already knew that. 

Now that the adrenaline of being alert for so long was waning off, she felt her exhaustion return. So much so that regeneration actually sounded good.

“Icheb continued our work on the mobile regeneration unit while you were away.” B’Elanna told her with a smile while Chakotay quickly filled Kathryn in on the state of the ship. “It isn’t finished yet of course but he made some important breakthroughs and I think it was a good way for him to… you know, cope.”

The feelings of pride Seven had felt at the mentioning of Icheb’s hard work were quickly replaced with guilt. He must have been worried about her, about both of them. She needed to talk to him.

“Why are we behind a forcefield?” Kathryn finally asked her First Officer.

“Just a precaution.” Chakotay quickly told her. “We had no idea what had happened to you.”

“I will tell you the whole story.” Kathryn said with a smile. “But I would really like a shower first. Or a bath.”

Seven suddenly noticed the smudges of dirt on Kathryn’s face and she became painfully aware of all the looks thrown her way because of her ruined uniform that was stained with her blood.

“Doctor, your verdict?” Chakotay asked him. 

“They are fine. No need to go to Sick Bay.” The Doctor said as he put away his instruments. “Seven _really_ needs to regenerate but she will recover. The Captain is actually in pristine health. Almost as if you took a little vacation!”

“I had a piece of fruit the trees offered me and it was… very good.” Kathryn told them, still struggling to explain the benefits of the fruit. 

“Don’t tell Neelix that.” Chakotay quickly told her. “He is still mourning the loss of his vegetables and fruits.”

“I think it’s a blessing we got rid of all of it.” B’Elanna said as she crossed her arms. “All the food he made with it was _green_.”

Seven smiled at the disgusted look on B’Elanna’s face and then gratefully stepped off the platform after Chakotay lowered the forcefield. 

“We’ll let you get cleaned up. Maybe after that you can tell us the full story over a hot meal in the Mess Hall?” Chakotay suggested. “No alien green food, I promise.”

They quickly accepted his offer but after that Seven let Kathryn do the rest of the talking and joking as she merely smiled at being home again and meekly followed Kathryn into the corridor.

Part of her actually wanted to go directly to the Cargo Bay. She needed to regenerate and she could change her clothes in her little private bathroom there. But she wasn’t willing to leave Kathryn’s side just yet and neither, it seemed, was the Captain. She actually fell back a little as they all walked through the corridor and then simply took Seven’s hand in her own. 

Seven focused on the feeling of her warm hand until they were alone in the turbolift. The others had left, to go to Sick Bay or the Bridge or Engineering. Kathryn had given Chakotay the order to leave orbit and continue on their course back to Earth but Seven had barely noticed that nor that the others had left. All she cared about was that she was back on Voyager and alone with Kathryn. 

She briefly closed her eyes to listen to the familiar hum of the lift surround them and only opened them again as Kathryn pulled her out to walk over to her quarters.

The second they stepped through the doors, Kathryn turned around and wrapped her arms around Seven’s neck. 

On instinct, Seven leaned in for a kiss but Kathryn held back for a few heartbeats. 

“Welcome home.” She whispered right before their lips touched.

A bath had never felt that good. But then again, Kathryn knew she had thought that many times before. Like when she and Seven had spent a vacation on the Holodeck for example…

Still, it had felt really good to feel the warm water wash the dirt away from her skin and to watch Seven relax as well. She knew her girlfriend had been tense for days and she had smiled as Seven had actually started to yawn halfway through their bath.

“Are you sure you want to join everyone else for dinner in the Mess Hall?” Kathryn asked her afterwards while she was brushing out her hair. “We could just have a quiet meal here if you want.”

“No, I want to go. I would like to be there when you tell everyone how _I_ saved _you_ from the trees.” Seven said mockingly as she raised an eyebrow at her while putting on a freshly replicated uniform jacket. “I actually think it was more the other way around. I distinctly remember _me_ starting the fight and _me_ being the one who was wrapped in thorns.”

“We don’t know where those trees would have taken me if you hadn’t barged into the clearing with your burning stick.” Kathryn countered as she checked her reflection in the mirror one last time. “They might have taken me back to the mining site but they could also have taken me deeper into the forest or something even worse.”

Kathryn turned around in time to see a shadow cross Seven’s face and she immediately regretted her words. She quickly walked over to Seven who was now sitting down on the edge of her bed and took her hands in her own. “Whatever would have happened… you stopped them. You came for me.”

“I’ll always come for you.” Seven said in a soft voice and Kathryn’s heart throbbed at the sincere expression in those deep blue eyes.

She cupped Seven’s face in both of her hands and then placed a very soft kiss on her lips. Seven responded right away, wrapping her arms around Kathryn’s waist and deepening the kiss. 

“We still have some time before we have to meet the others, right?” She asked the Captain in a husky voice as she pulled her down to sit on her lap.

All Kathryn did was smile before Seven quickly spun her around and gently laid her down on the bed.

“Captain! Seven! How good to see you two again!” Neelix greeted them enthusiastically.

“It’s good to be back, Neelix.” Kathryn told him. “I’m sorry you had to give up your hard work with the food from the planet though.”

“Ah that’s alright. If it means having you two back here with us!” Neelix shrugged. “I would have given up all of my stock for that.”

“Trust me, that is not how it was. The fruits, vegetables and the stone weren’t a ransom.” Kathryn said as she quickly became serious again. Seven smiled as she noticed how Kathryn was still defending the trees and the flower people.

“Sounds like it’s time for you to tell your full story, Captain.” Chakotay said as he walked over to them. 

“Yes! Everyone gather around the table and maybe some of you help me get these dishes over there." Neelix said as he quickly took off his apron. "We will have a feast, with our _normal_ food, to celebrate that you two are home again!” 

B’Elanna, Tom and Harry all walked over to help Chakotay and Neelix bring the food over to a long table in the middle of the room. 

Tuvok was already setting it with plates and Seven quickly exchanged a look with him. But the Vulcan did not seem angry with her as he merely nodded at her, acknowledging her presence before talking to Kathryn. 

Seven could not linger on whether or not she might be punished for her disobedience. She was too happy to be home and she had spotted Icheb.

“Seven.” He said and she could see the relief on his face before he enveloped her in a hug.

“I’m sorry.” She said softly. “You must have been… concerned.” 

“I was.” He said as he pulled back. “But this wasn’t the first time something like this happened and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

His words reminded her of the things Kathryn had said to her in the cave. How their lives were dangerous, how it was a part of space exploration, a part of being in Starfleet… and Icheb had chosen that life for his own. 

“I’m glad your home.” Icheb said, waking her from her thoughts with a start. 

“Me too.” Seven smiled at him through her exhaustion. “Lieutenant Torres told me that you continued the work on our project.”

“I hope you don’t mind.” Icheb said as they took their places at the table. Seven sat down next to Kathryn and Icheb sat down on Seven’s other side. 

“Of course, I don’t mind.” Seven continued their conversation while the others started asking Kathryn questions about the events on the planet. “I’m very grateful for your help.”

“It isn’t finished yet.” Icheb quickly said with a smile. “But I think we’ll be able to make it work very soon.”

“Good.” Seven said as she accepted a dish of potatoes handed down to her by Kathryn. Their fingers touched and as always Seven felt a little electric shock go through her, making her nanoprobes sing. She briefly glanced up into Kathryn’s smiling gray eyes but then turned back to Icheb. “I’m looking forward to continue working on it with you.”

Then they fell silent and after a while, Icheb joined the conversation about the trees and the flower people. Seven was very grateful that Kathryn was telling the story because she barely had the energy to eat. 

Sometimes she would groan or make a noise to show the others that she felt her girlfriend was exaggerating certain parts. But other than that, she merely soaked in the smells of the good food, the sounds of all the familiar voices, the sight of all of their smiling faces and the feeling of Kathryn’s leg pressing against her own under the table. They were home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now this could have been a nice ending but I am not quite done with this story yet. Still, it is nearing the end and with it, this series will change a bit. Stay tuned to find out more.
> 
> If you have the time, let me know what you think. Any comment is appreciated.


	20. World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your feedback.

The smell of coffee was a lot stronger than usual. That was one of the things that Seven noticed right before she completed her cycle of regeneration. 

“Regeneration cycle complete.” The Computer told her as she stepped out of her alcove and opened her eyes which immediately landed on the source of the strong coffee smell.

“Good morning.” Kathryn beamed up at her with a smile while holding a big tray with breakfast laid out on it, including a cup of strong black coffee of course.

“Good morning.” Seven said as she stepped off the platform and placed a soft kiss on Kathryn’s cheek. “What’s all this?”

“I thought we could have breakfast together so I made this.” Kathryn said looking down at the tray but then she caught Seven’s hesitant look. “Don’t worry I used the replicator and Neelix was there to supervise me the whole time.”

“Thank you. That is so nice of you but why did you bring it here?” Seven asked as she looked around at the dark Cargo Bay.

“I thought it might be nice to have breakfast here for a change.” Kathryn said as she put the tray on the ground and then sat down on the edge of the platform. 

“You did?” Seven asked her incredulous as she sat down on the other side of the tray. 

“I know it might not be the coziest place on the ship.” Kathryn conceded. “But it has been an important place for both you and me. I have watched you regenerate here so many times when I couldn’t sleep... I thought we should remember that for a while before you finish your mobile regeneration unit.”

Seven looked back at the Borg alcoves, shining their green light across the otherwise dark room. “I hadn’t really thought about it that way…”

“Well, I did because I couldn’t sleep last night.” Kathryn told her. “I do hope that fruit will wear off eventually because the aftereffects are starting to creep me out a little bit.”

Seven frowned at her but that frown quickly turned into a smile as Kathryn happily munched away some toast with scrambled eggs. At least her appetite was back, that must be a good sign.

“So I was thinking that I would like to see your project, your designs for this regeneration machine.” Kathryn said as she took a sip of her coffee. “I know I didn’t show enough interest in it before and I’m really sorry about that.”

“That’s alright.” Seven said as she took a bite of the food as well. It was actually good. “You had a lot on your mind.”

They were silent for a while and Seven was sure that Kathryn was thinking back to their fights well. It was strange that all of that had only happened a few days ago, somehow it seemed like a lot more time had passed. Their adventures on the planet had certainly changed things and their fights about the articles from Earth almost seemed trivial now. 

“Still…” Kathryn broke the silence. “I would like to leave all of that behind us and I would like to see your work… if that’s alright.”

“Of course it is!” Seven quickly told her. “I would love to show you. Last night Icheb told me that it isn’t finished yet but that we are close.”

“Good.” Kathryn smiled. 

“But don’t you need to get back to your Captain’s duties?” Seven asked her before drinking some orange juice.

“I think looking in on a project that is being developed on Voyager counts as part of my Captain’s duties.” Kathryn said with a very serious tone, easing Seven’s mind. “When are you going back to work on it?”

“I hadn’t thought about it yet. All I could think about last night was regeneration.” Seven admitted, remembering her exhaustion. “But I would like to check on it first thing after breakfast.”

“Good.” Kathryn said again. “Because I actually have a few calls to make this afternoon. I have a chip to call my mother but before that I am going to talk to Starfleet.”

“Are you going to tell them about your… walks on the planet?” Seven asked her gently.

“Perhaps… but I was actually planning on talking to them about us. To tell them that no matter what the press says… that you and I… we’re together now.” Kathryn said awkwardly and Seven found her stammering absolutely adorable. 

She didn’t know what to say in reply so she simply picked up the tray and put it aside so she could easily kiss Kathryn. They were still sitting on the edge of her regeneration platform but all of that didn’t matter now. All that mattered was the feeling of Kathryn’s lips on her own.

“So…” Kathryn said as they broke apart again. “Breakfast in the Cargo Bay… too weird?”

“Maybe.” Seven laughed. “But I appreciate the gesture.”

“Great.” Kathryn said while brushing her fingers over Seven’s cheek. “Now show me your project.”

Kathryn let out a deep breath as she made sure that the connection with Starfleet Headquarters was broken again. She felt silly for being so nervous but somehow this call had felt very different, it had been more of a personal call than a Captain’s report. 

She had briefly told them what had happened on the planet but she hadn’t gone into any details yet, wanting to keep her mistakes with the trees out of the conversation for as long as possible. 

Instead she had quickly moved on to the topic she really wanted to discuss, her relationship with Seven. 

The people she had talked to had been sympathetic and they told her that Starfleet had no objections towards her starting a relationship with a subordinate nor the fact that Seven was younger than she was and a former member of the Borg Collective. 

Apparently her answers to their inquiries in the latest data stream had eased their minds and everything was fine. 

Her relief had been confusing. She knew she didn’t really need their permission or blessing or anything like that. But somehow it felt good to have their support. Something she would share with Seven soon because she knew that Seven would want to know that too.

It felt a little strange to think of Seven while being in the Astrometrics Lab. This room was so tied to her girlfriend that Kathryn kept glancing around, expecting to find her standing close by, working on some data.

But Seven and Icheb had left to go to Engineering after showing her their designs and prototypes for the regeneration unit. 

Of course, she hadn’t understood all of it but they had explained it to her as much as possible. She had felt quite proud of both of them for pulling something like that off so fast and she had been very touched by the hope she had seen on Seven’s face. 

This project was very important to her and Kathryn hoped that she would be able to finish it soon. She deserved that, after all she had been through.

Kathryn also hoped that she had shown her enthusiasm for the project properly this time because she wanted Seven to know that she supported her in this and any future endeavor she might undertake.

Sighing, she glanced at the clock again, hoping that her mother would have some comforting words to say to her. 

All of the insecurities of the last few days had made her feel slightly off balance and if it hadn’t been for Seven… she might have lost herself completely. A call home might just do the trick to plant her feet firmly back on the ground.

Finally, she could initiate the call to Indiana and the usual butterflies erupted in her stomach while she waiting for her mother to answer it. 

“Kathryn? Can you hear me?” Her mother’s voice had such a strong impact on her that Kathryn had to swallow each time she heard it.

“Yes mom, I can hear and see you.” She said while smiling through some tears. “Phoebe! How nice to see you too.”

“Hi, Kathy!” Her sister greeted her. “I hope you don’t mind me joining in on your call home.”

“Of course not.” Kathryn quickly told her. “I’m so happy to see you two.”

“How are you, Kathryn?” Gretchen asked her. “Where is Seven?”

“Seven is… working. I wanted to talk to you, both of you I guess, in private.” Kathryn told her.

“You didn’t fight over those damn articles, did you?” Phoebe asked her as she moved even closer to the screen. 

“Um… we did… sort of… but it is all behind us now.” Kathryn quickly told them but she noticed the pointed look her mother and sister shared. 

“Kathryn.” Her mother always said her name in a very specific way when she was disappointed in her. “It’s just gossip.”

“I know, mom. I know that now.” Kathryn said as she ran her hands through her hair. “It was just… very new and intense.”

“So what happened?” Phoebe asked her as if they had all the time in the world to talk things over. Just like they had done when they were younger and both still living on Earth.

“I overreacted and then… well I got sort of stuck on a planet we were visiting.” Kathryn hesitated but then quickly continued before her mother or sister could ask her any more questions about that. “But Seven came for me and then we… talked and everything is fine now.”

How could she still be blushing like this? She was a grown woman, a Starfleet Captain. But right now she felt like a teenager again or even a child. 

Her sister’s sniggering didn’t help either. 

“Phoebe, stop that.” Their mother told her sternly. “Kathryn, how did you leave things with Seven?”

“Everything is fine, mother. We talked it over and she made me see how childish I was being.” Kathryn explained. “Don’t worry, if more of these articles show up… I know how to deal with them now.”

“You better. Because believe me, more articles will appear.” Gretchen told her sternly. “There are journalists trying to talk to us almost on a daily basis.”

“I’m sorry.” Kathryn said, suddenly feeling guilty for not considering what her mother and sister might go through because of her personal life. “I hope they are not bothering you too much.”

“Oh don’t worry, mom has a very unique way of dealing with them.” Phoebe told her and thanks to the big viewing screen of the lab, Kathryn could actually see the twinkle in her eyes.

She smiled back at her sister, imagining the ways their strong mother was dealing with these journalists.

“So why did you want to talk about this with us in private?” Gretchen asked her and Kathryn was both moved and a little annoyed that her mother was so clearly disappointed that she didn’t get to talk to Seven this time. 

“First of all, I didn’t want Seven to be here in case you would tell me off for overreacting.” Kathryn said with a little more cheek than she intended and she quickly continued talking when she saw her mother open her mouth to interrupt. “ _Secondly_ , I had to call Starfleet Headquarters before I could speak with you and I had to do that alone.”

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown.” Phoebe said broodingly. 

Gretchen shot her a warning look before turning her attention back to the screen. “Did you talk to Starfleet about all of this too?”

“I did and they are okay with it.” Kathryn told them. 

“They better be.” Phoebe muttered and this time Gretchen actually smiled at her youngest daughter. 

“Remember, Kathryn, I know it is important as a captain to know what Starfleet or even the people of Earth think about your relationships. But the most important thing is what Seven and especially you yourself think about it.” Gretchen told her sternly. 

“I _know_ , mom.” Kathryn said, wanting to roll her eyes. 

“Are you happy, Kathy?” Her mother then suddenly asked her. 

The nickname and the tone of her voice startled Kathryn a little and she could see that her mother was trying to hide her own anxiety over the question but she could still read it in her eyes. 

“Yes… I’m very happy with Seven.” She replied and she had to clear her throat a little after that because of all the emotions that suddenly rose up inside of her.

“Good.” Her mother said in a final tone. “That is all that matters. And we are happy for you.”

“Sure are.” Phoebe said while winking, trying to break the tension again. 

Kathryn smiled back at her sister and mother. “Thank you. Both of you. I’m sorry we are always just talking about me and my time is almost up now.”

“Don’t worry about that. Our lives are very straightforward.” Gretchen told her.

“She means boring!” Phoebe joked, causing Kathryn to laugh out loud. 

“We are just grateful and happy that we can talk to you like this.” Gretchen continued and Kathryn could once again see the emotion in her mother’s eyes. “But bring Seven the next time you get to call us, okay?”

“Will do, mom.” Kathryn said with a smile. “I love you. Both of you.”

“We love you too.” Gretchen said and Phoebe quickly blew a kiss at the screen as the timer ticked away the last few seconds.

The screen then turned black and the ringing silence that followed filled Kathryn with the usual heavy sadness for being so far away from home.

Taking a deep breath, she turned around to leave. She could not linger to calm herself completely because another member of her crew would be waiting outside, anxious to talk to their family.

She quickly opened the door to let them in and then walked out into the corridor with a smile on her face. 

Her mother was right. She should be grateful that it was even possible to talk to Earth now. The crew of Voyager had come such a long way already and in the meantime they had built a new home for themselves here in the Delta Quadrant. And that was another thing to be grateful for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter to go for this one!  
> If you have the time, please let me know what you thought of this chapter.


	21. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for sticking to this story and making it to the final chapter. I want to thank those special people who leave a comment on (almost) every chapter. You know who you are and I hope you know how grateful I am.   
> Over the last few days I went over all the chapters again, taking out mistakes, so that I can now call this story complete. Please enjoy this last chapter!

_Several days later…_

Kathryn felt nervous walking into Sick Bay and seeing Seven lying on the biobed, unmoving, did not help.

The beeping screens, monitoring Seven’s vitals and her nanoprobe count, made her anxious. They had been in all too similar situation too many times.

“Captain.” The Doctor greeted her. He was standing in the middle of the room, near the big consoles and had turned around when he heard her come in.

“Doctor, how is she doing?” Kathryn asked him nervously even though she knew that Seven was merely regenerating. Still experiments could go wrong… and this was the first time that Seven was trying to complete a full regeneration cycle with her new mobile regeneration unit.

“Everything is going very well.” He said as he stepped aside to show her his screens. 

Kathryn could see a lot of data and graphs on there but her eyes kept being drawn back to Seven on the bed. Her eyes were closed, her face relaxed and her breathing was slow and steady. 

“I see no differences in Seven’s vital signs nor her Borg physiology compared to her normal regeneration so far.” The Doctor explained the data as he saw how distracted she was. “They really did a remarkable job creating this machine.”

“Yes, they did.” Kathryn agreed and her eyes drifted over to B’Elanna and Icheb who were playing a card game to pass the time, waiting to see how their hard work would turn out. 

Quietly, so as not to disturb Seven during her regeneration, Kathryn walked over to their table and she saw that B’Elanna was actually teaching Icheb how to play poker.

“Hello Captain.” B’Elanna said with a smile, startling Icheb out of his concentration as he had been studying his cards intensely. 

“B’Elanna, Icheb.” Kathryn greeted them. 

“Everything is going well so far.” B’Elanna answered her unspoken question even though the Doctor had already reassured her of that. “We did some testing before of course but it looks like this will be the final step. The machine is finished.”

“How long before the cycle is complete?” Kathryn asked the Doctor as he joined them at the table. 

“By the looks of it she should wake up within the hour.” He told her. “That is _if_ she completes a full cycle. She was quite nervous when we started.”

They were all quiet for a while as they watched Seven again. 

“Lieutenant.” The Doctor broke the silence. “Can you explain to me how these circuits in the central module work? I would like to understand as much as possible about this machine, in case Seven needs any help in the future.”

“She can always come to me if there is something wrong with the machine.” B’Elanna muttered under her breath but she stood up to follow the Doctor back to his screens anyway.

Leaving Kathryn alone with Icheb and she was quite happy about that. She needed to talk to him. 

“How are you, Icheb?” She said as she sat down in B’Elanna’s chair and brushed her hand of cards aside.

“Very well, Captain. How are you?” He asked her.

Kathryn couldn’t help but smile. He had come such a long way, through such difficult circumstances. He had grown into a very polite and remarkable young man making it difficult sometimes to remember the angry boy he had been when he had joined her crew. 

“I’m good…” She answered him and then hesitated a little before continuing. “I wanted to ask you how you feel about… what happened with the gossip from Earth and then Seven and me being stuck on the planet…”

“Are you asking me about my opinion about your away mission?” He asked her, clearly confused.

“No, I guess not.” Kathryn said while rubbing her neck, feeling uncomfortable. “I guess what I really would like to know is how you feel about… Seven and me being a couple… in public.”

Icheb did not answer right away but he did tilt his head a little to the side. With a small jolt Kathryn realized that Seven did the same thing on those rare occasions when she thought things over before she would voice her opinion. They were so alike in so many ways, not just because of their Borg history. 

“What I mean is…” She continued nervously. “You are Seven’s family… and I was wondering if you are alright with us becoming more and more serious…”

“Of course, I am.” He said with a smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know.” Kathryn admitted while smiling back at him nervously. “I just hope you don’t feel like I am taking Seven away from you in any way.”

He gave a short laugh but Kathryn knew he wasn’t laughing at her. She had to admit that now she had said these things out loud that it did sound rather silly. 

“Are you asking me for my blessing, Captain?” He asked her jokingly.

“I… well… not in so many words. I mean… I don’t plan on…” She stammered and she felt her face heat up, probably getting close to the color of her uniform. 

“I’m sorry.” He said, wiping the grin from his face. “I did not mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I am actually quite touched that you would… check in with me about this.” 

“Good.” Kathryn muttered.

“And you are right. Seven is very important to me. She _is_ my family.” He said, completely serious now as he turned to look at Seven on the biobed. “But I know she loves you a lot and you love her too. I don’t always understand everything about human relationships yet… but I have never seen her so happy as when she is with you or when she talks about you. So yes, I am very happy that you two are getting serious. I want her to be happy.”

Kathryn swallowed a few times, trying very hard to get rid of the restricting feeling in her throat. She was glad that Icheb’s eyes were still turned away so he wouldn’t see how touched she was by his words.

“Thank you, Icheb.” She finally managed to say. “That is very sweet of you.”

He turned to look at her again and they shared a smile but then the biobed started to make a strange buzzing sound and one of the Doctor’s screens suddenly started to beep.

Startled, Kathryn quickly stood up and walked over to Seven. “What’s happening?”

“Her cycle is complete.” The Doctor simply said giving them all a reassuring smile before they turned their attention back to Seven.

Kathryn let out a sigh of relief when Seven’s blue eyes finally opened up but then she twitched her legs uncomfortably and a deep frown appeared on her face.

“Easy does it, Seven.” The Doctor said as he quickly placed a hand on her shoulder. “It must be a bit disorienting, regenerating horizontally on a bed instead of standing upright in an alcove.”

“It is.” Seven said grumpily as she quickly sat up, stretching her limbs.

Kathryn peeked at the machine that had been incorporated in the biobed for the experiment. It was quite small so it had been easy to install and now that Seven had moved, Kathryn could actually see the connectors, that had been linked with Seven’s spinal implant, slide back into the casing, making the machine even more compact.

“It worked?” Seven asked no one in particular as she made her way to the edge of the bed and stood up. 

Kathryn quickly took a step back to give her space but stretched out her arms, just in case Seven might be unsteady on her legs. But Seven simply smiled at her, looking as radiant as ever. Even though she did not need her support, she did take one of Kathryn’s hands in her own. Holding it tight.

“It worked perfectly!” The Doctor finally answered her question, motioning for her to follow him back to his screens.

“All of the results are exactly the same as when you had regenerated in one of the alcoves.” The Doctor pointed out as Seven studied the data for herself, still smiling. “The machine is a success.”

Seven looked up at all of them, still smiling. Kathryn did not know what to say and neither did the others. Even B’Elanna looked too touched by the scene to make one of her jokes or sarcastic comments as she simply smiled back at Seven. 

“Thank you all. For all of your help. I could never have done this alone.” Seven finally choked out and Kathryn squeezed her hand tightly before letting go so that Seven could hug back Icheb who had flung his arms around Seven laughing. 

His laugh broke the tension and then Seven started laughing with him. Icheb quickly pulled B’Elanna into the hug as well and the Chief Engineer couldn’t resist the happiness that radiated from their little team. 

Kathryn stood next to the Doctor, feeling immensely proud, happy and mostly relieved. She was happy that _this_ project had gone off without any hitch or accidents.

“This calls for cake and ice cream!” B’Elanna finally said as she pulled herself free from Icheb’s arms. 

“Chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream.” He agreed enthusiastically and he pulled on Seven’s arm to pull her along with him to the door.

But Kathryn had caught Seven’s eyes and apparently she had understood what she wanted to say. “You go on ahead. We will catch up with you.”

Seven waited for the Doctor to leave as well before she approached Kathryn. He had reminded them all that he of course couldn’t eat cake, that would forever be a sore spot, but that he did enjoy celebrations. Then they were alone. 

“Congratulations, darling.” Kathryn said and Seven could see tears in her gray eyes before she wrapped her arms tightly around her and hugged her close.

They stood like that for a few moments before Kathryn pulled back, stroking her hands up and down Seven’s back, causing small sparks to fly up and down her spinal implant. 

“Do you remember the last time we were alone in Sick Bay like this?” Kathryn asked her in a soft voice.

“You mean after my experiment with the lotion… when you were yelling at me?” Seven asked her confused.

“No!” Kathryn laughed as she whipped the moisture from her own eyes. “We weren’t completely alone back then… No I meant before that when-”

“When you told me you loved me too.” Seven finished the sentence, remembering now. 

“Yes.” Kathryn sighed, taking Seven’s hands in her own the way she had done back then. “And I still love you. More and more each day.”

“I love you too.” Seven whispered before leaning back in and kissing the woman she loved. 

It wasn’t a soft kiss. There were too many emotions whirling around her body for that. She felt extremely happy that the machine was working. She felt proud of their hard work and relieved that it had worked out so well. But most of all she felt an overwhelming sense of love as she felt Kathryn’s lips on her own, her hands on her back and the soft feeling of her hair on her fingertips…

Gasping a little, Kathryn finally broke the kiss and Seven found the blush on her cheeks absolutely adorable. She smiled as she gently nudged Kathryn’s nose with her own as her girlfriend tried to control her breathing.

“There was actually… something I wanted to ask you.” Kathryn panted, her gray eyes sparkling.

“What’s that?” Seven asked quietly as she continued to move her fingers through Kathryn’s hair and over her neck.

“I wanted to ask if you… if you have thought about where you want to keep it?” Kathryn asked with closed eyes as she leaned into the touch of Seven’s fingers.

“Keep what?” Seven asked confused, her brain wasn’t able to make sense of Kathryn’s words as it was focused on the sensation of the softness of her skin.

“The machine.” Kathryn said, opening her eyes again and there was a very serious look in them. “Now that you have the machine… you don’t need to regenerate in the Cargo Bay anymore.”

“I guess not.” Seven said, remembering Kathryn bringing her breakfast there right before she had showed her the designs for the machine. 

“Of course if you want to… you could still do it there.” Kathryn said and the blush on her cheeks darkened somehow. “Or if you want, you could have your own quarters. But I was hoping… considering that you already spent your sleeping nights at my place…”

Kathryn stopped talking with a sigh, closing her eyes again. Seven stopped moving completely as she waited for Kathryn to finish her thought or to take it all back.

“I was hoping that you might want to move in with me.” Kathryn said, looking her straight in the eyes. “Permanently.”

“Permanently?” Seven asked her quietly. 

“Yes.” Kathryn said without hesitation. “They wouldn’t be my quarters anymore but ours. We can move your stuff there. The telescope you got from the Darursai, the pictures of your parents and Icheb. Your clothes, your lotion. Anything else you might want to bring or change… I want it to be your home. Our home.” 

Seven took in a deep breath, trying very hard not to cry as all of the emotions she had felt before multiplied now that she knew how much Kathryn had already thought about this.

“Do you want that too?” Kathryn asked her and there was a very vulnerable tone to her voice. 

“Yes…” Seven whispered and then she cleared her throat to speak up. “Yes! Of course I want that. I love you. _You_ are my home.”

Then the most beautiful smile broke across Kathryn’s face, dazzling Seven a little as she stared at her before wrapping her arms around her and kissing her again. 

The thought of getting to wake up next to this woman every day, no matter if she had slept or regenerated, made her feel like she was flying. No matter where they were now, on Voyager or Earth, they would not have to be apart for one more night. She could not think about anything else as she simply gave into the feeling of Kathryn and let their love lift her off the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END... for now.
> 
> If you have the time, please, let me know what you think of this chapter, the story as a whole or the series so far!
> 
> I still have 4 stories planned for 'Braving the Elements' so if you like it, please subscribe to my profile or the series so you'll be notified when the next part is posted. You can also follow me on Instagram where I post regular updates about my writing.
> 
> The next part will be the E-rated companion story to Grounded Earth in which I will take your votes in the poll of chapter 16 into consideration.
> 
> Thank you again for reading.


End file.
